Method and apparatus for efficiently powering digital electronic nodes on a single conductor current line

ABSTRACT

Direct current circuits always require a voltage source consisting of a positive voltage and a ground. To power a plurality of a direct current circuit nodes one must traditionally supply a power supply line and a ground line to each circuit node. To simplify wiring, a single conductor system of powering a plurality of circuit nodes is disclosed wherein each circuit node has only two external connections and the circuit nodes are coupled in series. Specifically, each individual circuit node has an integrated circuit and a capacitor. A power circuit within the integrated circuit then directs current from an input into the capacitor to create a local power supply and shunts current from the input to an output when not directing current into the capacitor.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of the U.S. Nonprovisionalpatent application entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR LIGHTING POWER ANDCONTROL SYSTEM” having Ser. No. 12/590,449 that was filed on Nov. 6,2009.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to the field of electronic power andcontrol systems. In particular, but not by way of limitation, thepresent invention discloses techniques for providing electrical power todigital circuits on a single conductor current line.

BACKGROUND

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are a very energy efficient electroniclighting source. The first generation of LEDs emitted red light with avery small amount of illuminating power. However, modern LEDs can nowgenerate light across the visible, ultraviolet, and infra redwavelengths. Furthermore, modern LEDs can be provided with a significantamount of current such that LEDs can produce enough light to be used asillumination sources.

LEDs present many advantages over traditional sources of lightingincluding energy efficiency, a longer lifetime, greater durability, asmall form factor, and a very fast switching speed. These manyadvantages fueled the use of LEDs in a wide variety of applications.However, LEDs are still relatively expensive in up-front costs comparedto incandescent and fluorescent light sources. Furthermore, LEDsgenerally require more precise current and heat management thantraditional lighting sources. The first LEDs were used mainly asindicator lights on electronic equipment. LEDs have been ideal forportable electronics due to their low-energy usage and small formfactor. However, in more recent years, the availability of new LEDcolors and increases in brightness has allowed LEDs to be used in manynew applications.

The small size of LEDs and the ability to control the switching of LEDsusing computers have allowed for the development of LED based displaysystems. Specifically, a two dimensional array of individuallycontrolled LEDs can be used to display words and images. Thus, LEDs nowprovide the light source for many modern electronic scoreboards and verylarge scale video display systems such as the large video displaysystems seen at sports arenas and at New York City's Times Square.

Although LED-based display systems have proven to work very well, theinherent difficulties and expense involved in creating such LED basedvideo display systems have limited the deployments of LED-based videodisplay systems. Carefully metered and individually controlled electricpower must be provided to each LED in a two dimensional array of LEDsthat creates a LED based video display system. To construct a monochromehigh definition display system with a resolution of 1920×1080 pictureelements (pixels) requires that the system provide 2,073,600 individualLEDs with carefully controlled electrical power. To create a multi-colorhigh definition display system, three different colored LEDs (red,green, and blue) are required for each individual pixel such that6,220,800 individual LEDs must receive carefully controlled electricalpower. Thus, the design and manufacture of such large scale videodisplay systems is both complex and very expensive.

Due to the challenges of controlling so many independent LEDs, large LEDbased video display systems cost many millions of dollars such that onlyvery high end applications, such as large sports arenas, are able topurchase large LED based video display systems. Public video displaysystems for other situations generally use smaller conventional displaytechnologies associated with television displays or use much simplerdisplay systems such as large electronic scoreboards with only limitedpre-arranged LED patterns for displaying team scores and game time. Itwould therefore be desirable to simplify the task of designing andconstructing LED based display and lighting systems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numeralsdescribe substantially similar components throughout the several views.Like numerals having different letter suffixes represent differentinstances of substantially similar components. The drawings illustrategenerally, by way of example, but not by way of limitation, variousembodiments discussed in the present document.

FIG. 1 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine in theexample form of a computer system within which a set of instructions,for causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein, may be executed.

FIG. 2A illustrates a block diagram of the overall architecture of thesingle-wire multiple-LED control system of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2B illustrates an example data packet that may be sent to LEDunits.

FIG. 3 illustrates a timing diagram that shows show digital informationmay be modulated as current deviations from a nominal current value.

FIG. 4 illustrates the circuits of a LED line driver circuit in oneembodiment.

FIG. 5A illustrates how having the LED line driver turning on anexternal field effect transistor allows the line current to ramp upward.

FIG. 5B illustrates how having the LED line driver turning off anexternal field effect transistor allows the line current to rampdownward.

FIG. 5C illustrates a current diagram of current modulated by thecircuit of FIGS. 5A and 5B.

FIG. 6A illustrates ideal symmetrical current pulses and non idealcurrent pulses on the driver line.

FIG. 6B graphically illustrates how the FET switch timing computerworks.

FIG. 6C illustrates a timeline of phases during a single data bit cycle.

FIG. 7 illustrates one embodiment of an individually controllable LEDunit.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow diagram describing how the power systems inthe individually controlled LED units operate.

FIG. 9 illustrates how a data cycle misalignment may occur.

FIG. 10A illustrates pulses created with traditional pulse widthmodulation.

FIG. 10B illustrates pulses created with a reduced flicker modulationsystem.

FIG. 10C illustrates how the data patterns for the reduced flickermodulation system may be created.

FIG. 10D illustrates an imperfect current pulse and an ideal squarepulse.

FIG. 10E illustrates the reduced flicker modulation data pattern of FIG.10C after various different randomizations that reorder the pulses.

FIG. 11A illustrates a block diagram of a first possible LED lightingsystem based upon the teachings of the present disclosure.

FIG. 11B illustrates the LED lighting system of FIG. 11A whereinmultiple LED lighting fixtures are controlled from a single controller.

FIG. 12 illustrates a block diagram of a second possible LED lightingsystem based upon the teachings of the present disclosure.

FIG. 13 illustrates the LED driver system of the present disclosureimplemented as a DMX512-A protocol based stage lighting system.

FIG. 14 illustrates an application wherein a single LED line driver isdriving sixty-four individually controlled LED units that have beenarranged in an eight by eight array.

FIG. 15 conceptually illustrates how smaller modular two-dimensionalarrays (illustrated in FIG. 14) may be combined to create largertwo-dimensional display systems.

FIG. 16 illustrates several strings of individually controlled LED unitshung parallel to each other to create a two dimensional display system.

FIG. 17 illustrates a flow diagram describing a method of deploying,calibrating, and operating a display system created from multiplestrings of LED units.

FIG. 18 illustrates a data flow diagram describing how an incoming videosignal may be decoded and processed by a LED display system model togenerate LED control commands that drive a display system constructedusing a deployed set of LED strings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description includes references to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part of the detailed description.The drawings show illustrations in accordance with example embodiments.These embodiments, which are also referred to herein as “examples,” aredescribed in enough detail to enable those skilled in the art topractice the invention. It will be apparent to one skilled in the artthat specific details in the example embodiments are not required inorder to practice the present invention. For example, although theexample embodiments are mainly disclosed with reference to a system thatefficiently transmits output information to control Light EmittingDiodes (LEDs), the teachings of this disclosure can be used to transmitoutput information to control other light emitting components or evencommunicate bi-directionally with sensor devices that return data. Theexample embodiments may be combined, other embodiments may be utilized,or structural, logical and electrical changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope what is claimed. The following detaileddescription is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and thescope is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

In this document, the terms “a” or “an” are used, as is common in patentdocuments, to include one or more than one. In this document, the term“or” is used to refer to a nonexclusive or, such that “A or B” includes“A but not B,” “B but not A,” and “A and B,” unless otherwise indicated.Furthermore, all publications, patents, and patent documents referred toin this document are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety,as though individually incorporated by reference. In the event ofinconsistent usages between this document and those documents soincorporated by reference, the usage in the incorporated reference(s)should be considered supplementary to that of this document; forirreconcilable inconsistencies, the usage in this document controls.

Computer Systems

The present disclosure concerns computer systems since computer systemsare generally used to control LED lighting and display systems. FIG. 1illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the exampleform of a computer system 100 that may be used to implement portions ofthe present disclosure. Within computer system 100 there are a set ofinstructions 124 that may be executed for causing the machine to performany one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. In a networkeddeployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server machineor a client machine in client-server network environment, or as a peermachine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment. Themachine may be a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box(STB), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a webappliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable ofexecuting a set of computer instructions (sequential or otherwise) thatspecify actions to be taken by that machine. Furthermore, while only asingle machine is illustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken toinclude any collection of machines that individually or jointly executea set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more ofthe methodologies discussed herein.

The example computer system 100 includes a processor 102 (e.g., acentral processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU) orboth), a main memory 104 and a static memory 106, which communicate witheach other via a bus 108. The computer system 100 may further include avideo display adapter 110 that drives a video display system 115 such asa Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) or a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT). The computersystem 100 also includes an alphanumeric input device 112 (e.g., akeyboard), a cursor control device 114 (e.g., a mouse or trackball), adisk drive unit 116, an output signal generation device 118, and anetwork interface device 120.

The disk drive unit 116 includes a machine-readable medium 122 on whichis stored one or more sets of computer instructions and data structures(e.g., instructions 124 also known as ‘software’) embodying or utilizedby any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein.The instructions 124 may also reside, completely or at least partially,within the main memory 104 and/or within the processor 102 duringexecution thereof by the computer system 100, the main memory 104 andthe processor 102 also constituting machine-readable media. Note thatthe example computer system 100 illustrates only one possible exampleand that other computers may not have all of the components illustratedin FIG. 1

The instructions 124 may further be transmitted or received over acomputer network 126 via the network interface device 120. Suchtransmissions may occur utilizing any one of a number of well-knowntransfer protocols such as the File Transport Protocol (FTP).

While the machine-readable medium 122 is shown in an example embodimentto be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” should betaken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralizedor distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) thatstore the one or more sets of instructions. The term “machine-readablemedium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable ofstoring, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by themachine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies described herein, or that is capable of storing, encodingor carrying data structures utilized by or associated with such a set ofinstructions. The term “machine-readable medium” shall accordingly betaken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, opticalmedia, and magnetic media.

For the purposes of this specification, the term “module” includes anidentifiable portion of code, computational or executable instructions,data, or computational object to achieve a particular function,operation, processing, or procedure. A module need not be implemented insoftware; a module may be implemented in software, hardware/circuitry,or a combination of software and hardware.

In the present disclosure, a computer system may comprise a very smallmicrocontroller system. A microcontroller may comprise a singleintegrated circuit that contains the four main components that create acomputer system: an arithmetic and logic unit (ALU), a control unit, amemory system, and an input and output system (collectively termed I/O).Microcontrollers are very small and inexpensive integrated circuits thatare very often used in digital electronic devices.

Multiple-LED Control System Overview

To control multiple Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), or any othercontrollable light source, the present disclosure introduces asingle-wire multiple-LED power and control system. Specifically,individually controlled LED units are arranged in a series configurationthat is driven by a head-end control unit located at the head of theseries. The series of separate individually controlled LED units may bereferred to as a “line” or “string” of lighting devices and the head-endcontrol unit for the series may be referred to as the “line driver” or“string driver” since the head-end control unit provides the electricalpower and control signals to drive all of the individually controlledLED units on the line or string. Although the present disclosure isfocused on controlling LEDs or other light sources, the teachings of thepresent disclosure may be used to control any other type of electronicdevice such as sound systems, motors, sensors, cameras, Liquid CrystalDisplays (LCDs), etc.

FIG. 2A illustrates a block diagram of the overall architecture of thesingle-wire multiple-LED unit control system of the present disclosure.A LED line driver circuit 220 is situated at the head of a series ofindividually controlled LED units (250-1 to 250-N). In the exampleembodiment of FIG. 2A, the LED line driver circuit 220 receiveselectrical power from an external power supply circuit 210 that will bedescribed in detail later in this document. The LED line driver circuit220 also receives LED control data from a master LED controller system230. (Note that although this document will refer to an ‘LED line drivercircuit’, the line driver circuit can be used to send power and data toother types of circuits coupled to the driver line that performoperations other than controlling LEDs.)

The master LED controller system 230 provides detailed control datadescribing how the various LEDs on the individually controlled LED units(250-1 to 250-N) on the string should be powered on or off and thebrightness of each powered on LED. (In one embodiment, each individuallycontrolled LED unit has multiple LEDs of different colors such that theLED controller system 230 only supplies a color value and a brightnessvalue.) The master LED controller system 230 can be any type of digitalelectronic system that provides LED control data in the appropriateformat to the LED line driver circuit 220.

The master LED controller system 230 may range from a simple single chipmicrocontroller to a sophisticated computer system that drives many LEDstrings in a coordinated manner. For example, in a relatively simpleembodiment, the parts of a microcontroller implemented master LEDcontroller system 230, the power supply 210, and the LED line driver 220may be combined into a single LED Driver System 239 that controls astring of LED units 250. In a more sophisticated embodiment, an externalcomputer system, such as computer system 100 illustrated in FIG. 1, canbe programmed to output an appropriate LED control data signal to theLED line driver circuit 220 using signal generation device 118 or anyother appropriate data output system.

In one particular embodiment, the well-known Serial Peripheral Interface(SPI) is used to provide LED control data 231 from the master LEDcontroller system 230 to the LED line driver circuit 220. In thismanner, many LED strings can be coupled to and controlled by a singlemaster LED controller system 230 such as computer system 100. However,in alternate embodiments any other appropriate digital communicationsystem such as the Universal Serial Bus (USB), Ethernet, or the IEEE1394 interface (FireWire) may be used to provide LED control data to theLED line driver circuit 220. In an embodiment geared toward stagelighting applications, the data interface may be programmed to handlethe well-known DMX512-A protocol used for controlling stage lighting. Insuch an embodiment, multiple LED line driver devices can be coupled in adaisy-chain arrangement for controlling multiple strings ofindependently controlled LED units.

Using the power received from the power supply 210 and the LED controldata 231 from the master LED controller system 230, the LED line drivercircuit 220 drives an electrical signal on a current loop (made up ofline starting at 221 and returning at 229) that provides both electricalpower and control data to the entire string of the individuallycontrolled LED units (250-1 to 250-N). This system of providing bothpower and control data on a single wire greatly simplifies the designand construction of LED lighting and display systems. Furthermore, theuse of a single wire to carry both power and control data significantlyreduces the cost of constructing such a multiple LED display or lightingsystem. With the disclosed system, the single current loop (alsoreferred to as the driver line) may serve seven or more differentfunctions for the individually controlled LED units on the string suchas: (1) electrical power for the LED units 250, (2) control andconfiguration commands to LED units, (3) LED output data, (4) a clockreference value used to generate a local clock signal, (5) a currentreference value used to calibrate current output to LEDs, (6) heatdissipation, and (7) physical structure for supporting the individuallycontrolled LED units (250-1 to 250-N). Details on each of the functionswill be provided in later sections of this document.

FIG. 2B illustrates one embodiment of a data frame that may be modulatedonto the driver line linking the individually controlled LED units(250-1 to 250-N). At the head of the data frame is a synchronizationbyte 291. Since there is no separate clock signal sent to the LED units250, the synchronization byte is used by the LED units 250 to help lockonto the digital data signal and determine where each new data framebegins. Next, a command field 292 specifies a particular command to beexecuted by the recipient LED unit 250. An address field 293 specifies aspecific address (or group of addresses) to select which of the LEDunits (250-1 to 250-N) will respond to the command. After the addressfield 293 is a data field 294 that contains a payload of data. Finally,an optional Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) code 295 may be used to helpensure data integrity.

Referring back to FIG. 2A, a number of individually controlled LED units(250-1 to 250-N) are coupled to the driver line (that starts at 221 andreturns at 229) of the LED line driver circuit 220 in a seriesarrangement. Each individually controlled LED unit 250 comprises one ormore LEDs, a LED controller circuit, and any additional componentsneeded to complete the individually controlled LED unit 250. In oneembodiment, the only additional electrical component needed is acapacitor to store a reservoir of power for driving the LEDs on theindividually controlled LED unit 250. In other embodiments that handlegreater amounts of electrical current, an external diode and a smallheat sink may be used in addition to the capacitor used to storeoperating power. When there is more than one LED coupled to anindividually controlled LED unit 250, each different LED on that LEDunit 250 is referred to as a LED ‘channel’ on that LED unit 250.

In some embodiments, more than one capacitor may be used to store powerto operate the individually controlled LED unit 250. For example, in oneembodiment, there are different capacitors used to store power fordifferent LEDs. This may be done since different colored LEDs operate atdifferent voltage levels and by matching up capacitors with eachdifferent colored LED, the capacitors can be used to store just theright amount of voltage needed to drive that particular colored LED. Inthis manner, LEDs that needed higher voltage amounts are given thosehigher voltage amounts but LEDs that need lower voltage amounts aregiven those proper lower voltages. This prevents the inefficient use ofa voltage dropping circuit that would simply burn off excess voltage aswasted heat.

A critical component on each of the individually controlled LED units(250-1 to 250-N) is a LED controller circuit. The LED controller circuitperforms most of tasks required to intelligently control the variousLEDs on an individually controlled LED unit 250. These tasks includeobtaining power from the driver line and storing that power in supplycapacitor used to power the LED unit, generating the required regulatedvoltages to power the LED controller circuit, demodulating a data signalmodulated onto the current, decoding the demodulated data signal toextract a data frame, executing commands received in the data frame, anddriving the various LEDs to the specified brightness level. Details oneach of these functions will be presented in the section on theindividually controlled LED unit.

The LED Line Driver

As set forth in the previous section, the LED line driver circuit 220 ofFIG. 2A is responsible for providing both electrical power and LEDcontrol data to all of the individually controlled LED units (250-1 to250-N) coupled in series to the LED line driver circuit 220 on thedriver line that starts at 221 and returns at 229. To make LED lightingand display systems simple and inexpensive to construct, the LED linedriver circuit 220 provides both electrical power and control data toall of the LED units 250 on the single driver line. This single-wiredriver line greatly simplifies the construction of lighting and displaysystems that use large numbers of individually controllable lightingelements since those individually controllable lighting elements may bearranged in a simple daisy chain arrangement with a single wire couplingtogether each lighting element.

To provide power to the individually controlled LED units 250, the LEDline driver circuit 220 functions as an electrical current source thatdrives a nominally constant direct current (DC) signal on the singledriver line. Each of the individually controlled LED units (250-1 to250-N) coupled to the driver line in a series arrangement will drawneeded operating power from the nominally constant current driven on thedriver line.

To provide LED control data to all of the individually controlled LEDunits 250 on the string, the LED line driver circuit 220 modulatescontrol data onto the electrical current driven on the driver line. Inone embodiment, the control data is modulated onto the electricalcurrent with small up and down spikes from the nominal constant currentvalue. In such an embodiment, each data phase may be broken up into 2cycles comprising either a positive spike of current followed by anegative spike of current or a negative current spike followed by apositive current spike. These two different data phase patterns are usedto represent a one (“1”) or a zero (“0”) for a digital communicationsystem. FIG. 3 illustrates an example current diagram graphicallydepicting the current on the single driver line controlled by the LEDline driver circuit 220 as data is modulated onto the electricalcurrent. In the example of FIG. 3, a zero (“0”) is represented by apositive spike of current followed by a negative spike of current and aone (“1”) is represented by a negative current spike followed by apositive current spike. Note that each data phase contains both apositive current spike and a negative current spike such that averagecurrent value on the line remains at a constant nominal current amount.

Other means of coding the data include using Manchester coding andNon-Return-To-Zero with Manchester. Other means of modulating data ontoan electrical current may also be used. For example, in one alternateembodiment a first electrical current level may be used to designate alogical zero (“0”) and a second electrical current level may be useddesignate a logical one (“1”). In this manner, a stream of data bits maybe encoded by switching between the two electrical current levels.

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of the internals of a LED Line Drivercircuit 425 in one particular embodiment. The main aspect of the LEDLine Driver circuit 425 is a LED Line Driver IC (integrated circuit) 420that controls the overall operation of the LED Line Driver circuit 425.The LED line driver IC 420 includes a clocking circuitry block 485 togenerate the needed clock signals for driving the digital circuitry. Theclocking circuitry block 485 may receive input from an external clock486 (or resonator) to generate the various needed internal clocksignals. The clocking circuitry block 485 may contain a prescaler forreducing the speed of the clock signal from external clock 486 for theinternal core clock generation, some synchronization logic to ensurethat the chip's clocks properly start up after a power reset, and atiming generator for modulating data onto the driver line with theproper data rate.

Referring to the bottom left of the LED Line Driver IC 420 of FIG. 4, adata interface 430 receives control data from an outside controller suchas the master LED controller system 230 illustrated in FIG. 2A. The datainterface 430 extracts the incoming control data and passes that controldata to a command parser and handler circuit 440. In a simpleembodiment, the LED Line Driver IC 420 itself may include the circuitryfor generating a pattern of LED control data such that no external LEDcontroller is required.

In one particular embodiment, the data interface 430 implements thewell-known Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) protocol. In such anembodiment, the implementation may include the standard Data In 432,Data Out 431, Data Clock (not shown), and Chip Select (not shown) pinstypically used by the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) protocol. Theoperation of the SPI system will vary depending on the particularimplementation. In a traditional SPI implementation, an external SPImaster (such as master LED controller system 230 of FIG. 2A) sends datato the Data In 432 pin on each LED line driver IC 420 and specifieswhich LED line driver circuit(s) should act upon the data by activatingthe Chip Select Pins on their respective LED line driver IC(s). The SPIprotocol is a two-way protocol such that individual LED line drivercircuits can send back status information to the external SPI mastersystem. One embodiment of the LED line driver circuit uses the returndata path to return responses to status queries such as requests forcalibration information and buffer status. In an alternateimplementation of the SPI protocol, the Data Out 431 line could becoupled to the Data In interface on another LED line driver circuit in adaisy-chain arrangement such that a series of LED line driver circuitscould be controlled by a single master LED controller system.

The Command Parser and Handler circuit 440 examines the incoming controldata and reacts to the incoming control data appropriately. In oneembodiment, the LED Line driver IC 420 handles three main types ofincoming commands: configuration requests, status requests, and requeststo pass data down the driver line to the individually controlled LEDunits coupled to the driver line. Configuration requests may instructthe LED Line driver IC 420 to set specified control registers in theControl and Status Registers block 441. Configuration requests may alsoinstruct the LED Line driver IC 420 to burn non volatile configurationfuses on the LED Line driver IC 420 such that permanent configurationinformation may be programmed onto the LED Line driver IC 420. Incomingstatus requests may request status information from the LED Line driverIC 420 such as its buffer status, operating status, and currentconfiguration. Such status requests sent to the LED Line driver IC 420may be handled by fetching information from the Control and StatusRegisters 441 and transmitting a response back to the master controlleron the data out line 431.

Requests sent from a master LED controller to the LED Line driver IC 420to pass LED control data down the driver line to the individuallycontrolled LED units will generally make up the majority of thecommunication to LED Line driver ICs. The Command Parser and Handlercircuit 440 will handle these LED control data passing requests bypassing the LED control data to a Line Data Transmitter Block 450. TheLine Data Transmitter Block 450 stores the control data into a framebuffer. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, the LED Line driver IC 420 containstwo frame buffers (451 and 452) such that the LED Line driver IC 420 mayreceive incoming LED control data from the master LED controller into afirst frame buffer while simultaneously modulating LED control data fromthe second frame buffer onto the driver line. The frame buffers (451 and452) temporarily store LED control data destined for one or moreindividually controlled LED units (470-1 to 470-N) coupled to the driverline.

In some embodiments, the LED units 470 may communicate back to the LEDLine driver IC 420. For example, a LED unit 470 may be able to signalback to the LED Line driver IC 420 by turning its shunt transistor onand off during a designated time slot such that the effect would bedetectable by the LED Line driver IC 420. In such embodiments, anincoming status request message on Data In 432 may request status fromindividually controlled LED units 470 coupled to the driver line. TheCommand Parser and Handler circuit 440 would then translate this LEDunit status request into a second status request message that is thengiven to the Line Data Transmitter Block 450 and modulated onto thedriver line. When a response is received from the LED unit 470 the LEDLine driver IC 420 may then send a corresponding response message on thedata out line 431.

The Line Data Transmitter Block 450 is responsible for transmitting LEDcontrol data (and status requests in some embodiments) onto the driverline to the LED units 470. The Line Data Transmitter Block 450 takes thecontrol data (or status request) passed to it from the Command Parserand Handler circuit 440 and fills the next available frame buffer. Inone embodiment, the Line Data Transmitter Block 450 block is capable ofcalculating an optional frame Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) byte if acontrol register 441 specifies that this should be done. In oneembodiment, when the Line Data Transmitter Block 450 has no pending LEDcontrol data (or status) to modulate onto the driver line, then the LineData Transmitter Block 450 will modulate an idle data frame onto thedriver line. The idle data frame will be ignored by all of theindividually controlled LED units 470 but will help those individuallycontrolled LED units 470 maintain synchronization with the data streambeing modulated onto the driver line.

The Line Data Transmitter Block 450 passes formatted data frames fromthe frame buffers (451 and 452) to the Current Modulation Block 490. TheCurrent Modulation Block 490 is responsible for modulating a (nominally)constant direct current signal on the driver line to provide a stream ofdata to the LED units 470 on the driver line. Specifically, the CurrentModulation Block 490 modulates the electrical current by inducing smallsharp increases and decreases of the electrical current in order totransmit LED control data down the driver line to control the LED units470. In one embodiment, the Current Modulation Block 490 accomplishesthis goal by controlling an external transistor that biases an inductoron the driver line.

Before discussing the Current Modulation Block 490 in greater detail, areview of electrical power sources is useful. Most electronic circuitsare constructed using a voltage power source as an electrical powersource to power the electronic circuits. An ideal voltage source is aconceptual mathematical model that is capable of generating infinitecurrent at a particular designated voltage level to drive a load circuitand has zero internal resistance. Of course real world voltage sources,such as batteries and DC power supplies, are unable to generate infinitecurrent and have non zero internal resistance. However, as long as theload circuit powered by a real world voltage source does not exceed thecurrent capacity of the real world voltage source and a non zerointernal resistance is added in series with load circuit, an idealvoltage source can be used for circuit modelling a voltage source.

A current source is a much lesser used method for modelling anelectrical power source when designing electronic circuits. An idealcurrent source is a mathematical model of an electrical power sourcethat is capable of generating infinite voltage at a specified currentlevel to drive a load circuit and has infinite internal resistance.Again, no real world current source is capable of providing infinitevoltage nor will it have infinite resistance. But as long as the loadcircuit driven by a real world current source does not have too high ofa total resistance that would require very high voltage values, a realworld current source can be modelled as a ideal current source with anon infinite internal resistance in parallel with the ideal currentsource (a circuit known as the Norton equivalent circuit). The presentdisclosure uses a current source as the power source model.Specifically, the Current Modulation Block 490 of the LED line driver IC420 and the supporting external circuitry keep the electrical current onthe driver line around a specific nominal current value with smallincreases and decreases of current away that nominal current value usedto modulate data onto the electrical current.

Referring back to FIG. 4, an external power supply 410 generateselectrical current that is transmitted down a driver line through theLED units 470. The output voltage (labeled as Vsupply 411) of theexternal power supply 410 at the head of the driver line is at a voltagepotential above what is needed by the sum of all the LED units 470 onthe driver line. After all of the LED units 470 on a string, the currentpasses through an inductor 462 and a field effect transistor (FET) 461to ground. The Current Modulation block 490 carefully modulates thecurrent level on the driver line by controlling the inductor 462 usingFET 461. Note that the FET 461 will generally be implemented externallyfrom the LED line driver IC 420 since the FET 461 must be able to handlerelatively high voltage potentials that cannot be handled within anordinary CMOS semiconductor.

Referring back to current diagram of FIG. 3, the current on the driverline is modulated around a nominal constant current value 310 with smallup and down current variations above and below the nominal constantcurrent value 310 used to modulate data onto the driver line. FIGS. 5A,5B, and 5C illustrate how the LED line driver controls inductor 562using FET 561 to modulate the current around the designated nominalcurrent value 310. Note that current control circuits other than a FETmay be used instead.

In a steady state direct current (DC) circuit, an inductor acts as ashort circuit with no effect on the circuit. However, when in a state ofchange, an inductor resists current level changes. Thus, when currentpassing through an inductor is being increased, that inductor will slowthe increase of current by storing energy in a magnetic field.Similarly, when current passing through an inductor is being decreased,that inductor will resist the decrease in current by using the energystored in the magnetic field to supplement the slowing current.

Referring to FIG. 5A, when a LED line driver 425 is initially turned on,that LED line driver will turn on FET 561 to allow electrical current toflow from Vsupply 511 down through all the LED units 570 on the string,through inductor 562, through FET 561 (which controls the current), andfinally through resistor 564 to ground 565 of the power supply. Thiselectrical path from the Vsupply 511 of the external power supply to theground 565 of the external power supply is referred to as the currentloop. Note that after inductor 562 there is a circuit branch that passesthrough diode 563 to a second voltage source Vclamp 512 from externalpower supply. However, current will not flow towards Vclamp 512 when theFET 561 is turned on since Vclamp 512 will be at a voltage potentialhigher than ground 565.

When FET 561 is initially turned on, the electrical current willincrease on the driver line as illustrated in FIG. 5C. However, theincrease in electrical current will be slowed by inductor 562 that willresist a rapid current increase by storing energy in a magnetic field.Thus, the current on the driver line will ramp upwards during a start-upphase 521 in FIG. 5C. Note that there will be voltage drop across theinductor 562 during this time as indicated by the “+” and “−” symbols onFIG. 5A. The LED line driver IC 420 will keep the FET 561 turned onduring start-up phase 521 thus allowing the current level on the driverline to increase until the current exceeds the designated nominalcurrent level 510 by a specified amount.

Once the current flowing on the driver line exceeds the designatednominal current level 510 by a specified amount, the LED line driver IC420 will turn off FET 561 as depicted FIG. 5B such that the current canno longer flow through FET 561 toward the ground 565 of the powersupply. However, the inductor 562 will resist a rapid change in currentflow and instead cause the current to begin ramping downward asillustrated by current drop 531 in FIG. 5C. Since the current can nolonger flow through FET 561 to ground 565, the slowing current willinstead flow in the branch circuit through diode 563 toward Vclamp 512as illustrated in FIG. 5B which depicts the flow of current when the FET561 has been turned off. This will occur even though Vclamp 512 is at ahigher voltage than Vsupply 511 since inductor 562 will use energy inits magnetic field to continue driving the current.

Although the current will begin to ramp downward just due to the factthat the FET 561 has been turned off, a downward ramp due only toturning off the FET 561 would be relatively slow. (Slow relative to theupward ramping of current when the FET 561 is turned on, thus creatingan asymmetry between the up and down current ramps.) To accelerate thedownward ramping of current and thus cause the upward and downwardcurrent ramps to approximately match, Vclamp 512 is set to a highervoltage potential than Vsupply 511 such that a reverse voltage bias (asindicated by the “+” and “−” symbols in FIG. 5B) will be placed acrossinductor 562 thus accelerating the ramp down of current.

Referring to FIG. 5C, once the current 531 drops more than a specifiedamount below the designated nominal current value 510, the LED linedriver will turn on the FET 561 (reverting back to the state of FIG. 5A)to allow the current to ramp back upward as illustrated by current rise532. The LED line driver IC 420 does not allow the current on the driverline to reach a final steady state of direct current. Instead, it willcontinually turn the FET 561 on and off to keep the current on thedriver line around the desired nominal current level 510.

In an alternate embodiment, more than one inductor and FET pair may becoupled in parallel to the driver line. In this manner, the parallelinductors can provide more current change resistance with low voltageamount across the parallel inductors.

By turning the FET 561 on and off, the LED line driver IC 420 canmodulate the amount of current flowing on the driver line in relativelysteady upward and downward ramps. By turning the FET 561 on and off in amanner correlated with control data, the LED line driver IC 420 canmodulate control data as current patterns on the driver line asillustrated by the data phase 522 of FIG. 5C. Note that when a LED linedriver IC 420 lacks any commands that it needs to modulate onto thedriver line, then LED line driver IC 420 will then modulate emptypackets onto the driver line. In this manner, various LED units on thedriver line will be able to maintain synchronization with the datastream modulated by the LED line driver IC 420.

Referring back to FIG. 4, the current modulation block 490 receives dataframes from the Line Data Transmitter Block 450 to modulate onto thedriver line as patterns of current spikes. As set forth above, theCurrent Modulation block 490 may accomplish this task by either turningon external FET 461 (which allows current to ramp upward by allowing thecurrent to pass to the ground 465 of the power supply 410) or turningoff external FET 461 (which ramps current downward by applying a reversebias across inductor 462). The Current Modulation block 490 isresponsible for ensuring that despite the current changes induced ontothe driver line to modulate data, the current averages out to a properdesired nominal direct current (DC) level. In this manner, the averagecurrent level on the driver line may be used as a current referencevalue by the LED units coupled to the driver line.

The Current Modulation block 490 may control the external FET 461 bycontrolling its own internal FET 493. In one embodiment, the internalFET 493 is designed to handle 10 volt swings in order to be able tocontrol the larger external FET 461 that is directly responsible forcontrolling the current on the driver line.

The modulation of data onto the current is not a trivial process. Theoperation of the various LED units 470 on the driver line will make itdifficult for the LED line driver circuit 425 to consistently controlthe electrical current on the driver line. Specifically, referring toFIG. 5A, the various LED units 570 will either be drawing current tocharge a local capacitor (which causes a larger voltage drop across theLED unit) or shunting the line current (which causes only a smallvoltage drop across the LED unit) such that the voltage drop betweenVsupply 511 and Vline 514 will vary depending on whether the LED unitsare shunting or not. As a consequence, the voltage across inductor 562will also vary such that the upward ramp of current (when the FET 561 ison) will not always be at the exact same slope. The same issue appliesduring downward ramps of current. Specifically, referring to FIG. 5B,the varying voltage drop across LED units 570 means that the reversevoltage bias from Vclamp 512 across the inductor to Vline 514 will notalways be the same such that the slope of downward current ramps willvary. To reduce this issue, the various LED units 570 should restricttheir unshunting to times near the edge of the data bits. However, theshunting and unshunting by the LED units 570 near the data bit edgeswill still affect the task of modulating and demodulating data.

Ideally, the LED line driver 425 would generate current ramps thatalways begin and end at the nominal current value 610 and are perfectlysymmetrical during each half of a bit cycle and as illustrated by theideal current ramp drawn with a dashed line on FIG. 6A. However, thevarying conditions on the driver line will prevent such ideal currentramps from always being achieved. For example, if the there isrelatively low voltage drop across the cumulative LED units 570 on thedriver line then a higher voltage across inductor 562 may cause thecurrent to increase faster (as illustrated by the solid line) than theideal current ramp (as illustrated by the dashed line) in FIG. 6A. (Notethat the exact height of the peak of a current ramp is not so importantas long as it is larger than threshold amount needed to be detectable.)

To compensate, the downward current ramp should begin should begin at anappropriate time (determined by taking into account the anticipateddownward slope) such that the current level crosses the nominal currentlevel 610 in the middle of the data cycle. In the example of FIG. 6A, itis anticipated that the downward current slope will be less steep thanthe ideal such that the downward phase begins earlier than normal thusproducing a slightly left-shifted peak of the current ramp. In general,if the absolute value of the slope during the first part of a ramp isgreater than the absolute value of the slope during the second part of aramp then the peak will be shifted earlier (to the left on a timelinediagram) and if the absolute value of the slope during the first part ofa ramp is less than the absolute value of the slope during the secondpart of a ramp then the peak will be shifted later (to the right on atimeline diagram).

To carefully create the current ramps, the current modulation block 490of the LED line driver circuit 425 may create models of the currentbehavior to estimate the proper time to change the external FET 461.Various different methods may be used to model the current ramps. In oneparticular implementation, the Current Modulation block 490 uses analogcomputers to model the current ramps in order to determine when to turnthe FET on and off.

Referring to FIG. 4, the Current Modulation block 490 has twosubstantially identical analog computer circuits labelled as Ramp A 491and Ramp B 492. The Current Modulation block 490 uses these two analogcomputer circuits in an alternating manner wherein one analog computeris used during the first half of a data cycle and the other analogcomputer is used during the second half of a data cycle. Each of the twoanalog computer circuits uses an analog ramp circuit to estimate when toturn on or off the gate signal of the field effect transistor (FET) 493(which will in effect turn on or off the larger external transistor 461)to have the current ramp end up back at the nominal line current valueat the end of the half of a bit cycle. In one embodiment, these analogramp circuits build a model of how much the current would change duringthe remainder of the half of a bit cycle if the FET 493 were immediatelyswitched. In the case of an upward ramp, the model specifies the howmuch the current would drop from its present amount if the FET 493 wereimmediately switched. This will vary from a large amount of current dropif the FET 493 were switched at the start of a half of a bit cycle tozero current change if the FET 493 were switched at the end of the halfof a bit cycle.

As set forth earlier, the speed at which the current changes isdependent upon the voltage across the inductor 462. To determine thevoltage across inductor 462, three different voltage values are providedto the current modulation circuit 490: Vline 414, Vclamp 412, andVfetsrc 417. When the FET 461 is turned on, the voltage across inductor462 is determined as the voltage difference from Vline 414 to Vfetsrc417 (minus a small drop across FET 461). When the FET 461 is turned off,the voltage across inductor 462 may be determined as the voltagedifference from Vline 414 to Vclamp 412 (minus a small drop across diode463). Using these voltage values, the rate of the current change (asdepicted by the slope) can be estimated and used to determine the propertime to switch the FET 461. Note that these voltage values may actuallybe read as current through a resistor since the current is proportionalto the voltage per Ohm's law.

The analog computer circuits (Ramp A 491 and Ramp B 492) may beimplemented with a ramp circuit and a multiplier circuit. A ramp circuitis used to generate a ramp signal that starts at a fixed full scalevalue and ramps down to zero at the end of the half of a bit cycle. Thisramp signal is then multiplied in an analog multiplier circuit by thevoltage difference value that determines the rate of the current change(graphically illustrated as the slope). If the FET 493 is currentlyturned on then the ramp signal is multiplied by an amount correlated toVclamp 412 minus Vline 414 since this will be the voltage across theinductor 462 once the FET 493 is turned off. If the FET 493 is currentlyoff then the ramp signal is multiplied by an amount correlated toVfetsrc 417 minus Vline 414 since this will be the voltage across theinductor 462 once the FET 493 is turned back on.

The output of an analog ramp circuit is combined with the present timevalue of the electrical current on the driver line (or an estimate ofthat current). When the absolute value of present current minus thenominal current level equals the amount of the current change that willoccur as predicted by the ramp circuit, the state of the FET 461 ischanged. The electrical current on the driver line when the FET 461 isturned on can be determined from the Vfetsrc 417 voltage value since thecurrent on the driver line will equal the Vfetsrc 417 voltage divided bythe resistance of resistor 464 as per Ohm's law. However, when the FET461 is turned off, a line current estimation circuit 495 can be used toestimate the electrical current on the driver line when the FET 461 isoff using the last known current value and the voltage across theinductor 462 as determined by Vline 414 and Vclamp 412.

To best describe the operation of the ramp circuits, some examples arehereby provided with reference to FIG. 6B. At the start of a data cycle,one of the ramp circuits is charged up and multiplied by the voltagedifference across the inductor to generate a value that corresponds tothe amount of a current change that would occur if the FET 493 wereimmediately switched. This amount of current change will drop down tozero (assuming it was charged properly) at the end of the half of thebit cycle. This is conceptually illustrated in FIG. 6B as lines 651,652, and 653 that have been drawn for different voltage values acrossthe inductor. Each line starts at a maximum current drop amount relativeto the nominal current level 610 if the FET were switched immediatelyand drops down to zero current change at point 691 at the end of thehalf of the bit cycle. The slope of the different lines 651, 652, and653 indicate how fast the current is expected to change based upon thevoltage across the inductor.

To use the output of the analog computers, the present current value(relative to the nominal current level 610) is compared with the currentdrop that is predicted to occur during the remainder of the half of thebit cycle by the ramp circuit. When the present current value crossesthe predicted amount of current drop, the FET 493 is switched. In thediagram of 6B, three different examples are presented. In a firstexample, the current increase 661 is faster than the predicted currentdrop rate 651 such that the system must switch the FET 493 before themidpoint 631 thus causing the peak of the current ramp to be slightlyshifted to the left. Note that both the current rise rate and thecurrent fall rate are both affected by the voltage across the inductorsuch that each different example current rise rate will have a differentpredicted current fall rate. In another example, the current increase663 is slower than the predicted current drop rate 653 such that thesystem must switch the FET 493 after the midpoint 631 thus causing thepeak of the current ramp to be slightly shifted to the right. When thecurrent increase rate 662 substantially equals the predicted currentdecrease rate 652, the ideal ramp centered at the midpoint 631 will becreated. However, as long as the current ramps peak within a reasonabledistance of the midpoint 631, the demodulation logic will have noproblem identifying the current ramps properly.

As previously set forth, when the FET 493 is off, it is difficult todetermine the current passing through the driver line since the currentis temporarily being diverted towards Vclamp 512 as illustrated in FIG.5B. Thus, the technique of determining the current by measuring thevoltage at Vfetsrc 417 in FIG. 4 cannot be used since no current ispassing through resistor 464 to generate voltage. Instead, another rampcircuit, line current estimation circuit 495, may be used to estimatethe current during downward ramps. Thus, referring back to FIG. 6B, linecurrent estimation circuit 495 may be used to predict the current on thedriver line as illustrated by prediction line 680. Note that the rate ofcurrent change will again be correlated with the voltage drop across theinductor. Similarly, one of the ramp circuits (491 or 492) will be usedto predict the amount that the current will rise for the remainder ofthe half of the bit cycle if the FET 493 were immediately switched. Whenthe two prediction circuits are outputting equal absolute values(relative to the nominal line current) the FET 493 is switched.

The internal logic of the current modulation block 490 may beimplemented in various different ways. In one embodiment, the systemdigitally determines the current in the line when the FET 493 is onusing the Vfetsrc 417 voltage measurement. Then a digital-to-analogconverter (DAC) converts this digital current value to an analog currentvalue to compare with the predicted analog current drop value output byan Analog Ramp generator (491 or 492). When the two values are equal,the system switches FET 493 (which will in effect turn on or off thelarger external transistor 461).

Referring to FIG. 6C, a full data cycle comprising an upward currentspike followed by a downward current spike is illustrated. During timeperiod 620, one of the analog ramp circuits (such as Ramp A 491) ischarged up to help determine the transition time. At time 621, the FET461 is turned on (if it was not already on) to begin the currentincrease and the charged analog Ramp A circuit 491 is started (togenerate a representation of how much the current will drop when the FETis switched off). During time period 622, the electrical current on thedriver line (as calculated from Vfetsrc 417 voltage value) is comparedwith output of the analog Ramp A circuit 491 that predicts how much thecurrent will drop during the remainder of the half of a bit cycle if theFET 493 is switched off. When the two values are substantially equal(within a threshold value of each other) then the Current Modulationblock 490 turns the FET 461 to allow the electrical current level todrop back down to the nominal current value 610 during time period 624.

The time at which the system may determine that the state of the FET 461should be changed and the time at which the effects of the change aredetectable at FET 461 will not be equal due to propagation delays.Specifically, there are delays in the comparison circuit, there is adelay as the internal driver FET 493 is activated, and there is a delayas the external FET 461 is activated. To compensate for thesepropagation delays, an adjustment factor may be used to have the rampcircuit (491 or 492) make the request to change the FET state slightlybefore the two values are equal. In one embodiment, this may beimplemented by applying a fixed offset to the input of the comparatorcircuit that results in having the comparator fire earlier. Thus, thesystem will change the state of the FET when the two values (the currentvalue and the predicted current drop value) become within a definedthreshold amount of each other. In this manner, the FET will be switcheda little bit earlier than the exact time when the two values (the linecurrent and the predicted current drop) actually cross. A closed loopsystem may be employed to determine the proper value for the fixedoffset adjustment to the comparator.

During time period 624, the current on the driver line will drop backdown toward the nominal current value 610. If the system accuratelypredicted the behavior of the electrical current then the electricalcurrent level will pass through the nominal current value 610 at themidpoint 625 of the data bit cycle. During the fall time period 624, theCurrent Modulation block 490 will charge the other analog ramp circuit(such as Ramp B 492 since Ramp A 491 was using during the first half ofthe data cycle) to estimate the amount the current would rise if the FET493 were switched back on. And in an embodiment wherein the current onthe driver line is predicted instead of measured during downward currentramps, the system also charges up the line current estimation circuit495 for predicting the current level prediction as it drops.

At data cycle midpoint 625, the charged analog Ramp B circuit 492 andthe charged line current estimation circuit 495 are started. Inaddition, the current level at the data cycle midpoint 625 may besampled to see if the system properly determined the transition time (inthe previous half of a bit cycle) needed to return the current levelback to the nominal current level 610. If no current sample isavailable, then final output of the ramp circuit at the data bit cyclemidpoint 625 may be tested. If the (real or predicted) current level atthe midpoint 625 was below the nominal current level 610 then theparameters for using the analog Ramp A circuit may be adjusted to makeit less aggressive (reduce the predicted rate at which the current willdrop). On the other hand, if the (real or predicted) current level atthe midpoint 625 was above the nominal current level 610 then theparameters for using the analog Ramp A circuit will be adjusted to makeit more aggressive (increase the predicted rate at which the currentwill drop).

During phase 626 in the second half of the data cycle, the estimatedcurrent level on the driver line (as estimated using line currentestimation circuit 495) is compared with the analog Ramp B circuit 492output that predicts how much the current will rise during the remainderof the half of a bit cycle if the FET 493 is immediately turned on. Whenthe comparison is within a specified threshold at point 627, the FET 493is turned on to allow the current level to begin rising. Again, apropagation delay adjustment factor (such as the threshold value) may beused to make the request to turn on the FET 493 occur slightly beforethe two values are equal. After the FET 493 has been turned back on, thecurrent level will rise during time period 628 until the end of the datacycle is reached at point 629. During time period 628, the currentmodulation circuit 490 will charge up the other analog ramp circuit(Ramp A 491 in this example) for use in the next data cycle.

At the endpoint 629 of the data cycle, the current modulation circuit490 will sample the current level to determine if the system properlyestimated the transition time in order to return the current level backto the nominal current level 610. If the current level at the endpoint629 was below the nominal current level 610 then the parameters forusing the analog Ramp B circuit will be adjusted to make it moreaggressive. On the other hand, if current level at the endpoint 629 wasabove the nominal current level 610 then the parameters for using theanalog Ramp B circuit will be adjusted to make it less aggressive.

In the particular embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4, the currentmodulation circuit 490 used analog ramp circuits (491 and 492) as analogcomputers to create a predicted model of the line current behavior whenthe FET 461 is switched in order to estimate when to switch FET 461. Theanalog ramp circuits (491 and 492) are calibrated by a digital systemthat tested the results after each usage to determine if the parametersfor the analog ramp circuits needed to be adjusted thus forming a closedloop system.

However, in various alternate embodiments, a digital system may be usedto predict when to switch the FET 461 in order to return the currentlevel back to the nominal current level at the end of the half of a bitcycle. In such a system, analog to digital converters would be used tosample various relevant values and then a digital computer system, suchas a digital signal processor (DSP), would determine when to switch theFET. In such an embodiment, the digital computer system may be used tomodel the future behavior of the electrical current on the driver lineif the FET 461 were switched. Similarly, the digital computer systemcould also estimate the current in the line when the current could noteasily be sampled. However, implementing such a digital system wouldrequire high-speed analog to digital converters, more die area toimplement the digital process, and consume more power than the analogsystem as disclosed above.

In a very different embodiment of the current modulation circuit 490,current mirrors could be used to drive the proper current on the driverline. However, such an implementation has been found to be lessefficient that the disclosed combination of a transistor 461 controllingan inductor 462 to control the current on the driver line.

Referring back to FIG. 4, the LED Line driver IC 420 includes a powersystem circuit block 480. The power system circuit block 480 receivessource power from an external power supply 410 and uses that power togenerate the needed power signals to operate the LED Line driver IC 420.In one embodiment, the power system circuit block 480 receives arelatively high voltage source (around 10 volts) that is used to drivethe FET 493 in the Current Modulation block 490. Other needed voltagelevels are generated from the input voltage source to create voltagesources for other circuits in on the LED Line driver IC 420. A band gapvoltage reference circuit is used by the power system circuit block 480to create the various voltage levels. In one embodiment, the highvoltage input is used to generate a regulated 5 volt supply for drivinganalog circuitry and a 3 volt supply for powering digital circuitry inthe LED Line driver IC 420.

In one embodiment, the 3 volt supply and/or the 5 volt supply from thepower system circuit block 480 have extra current generationcapabilities such that the 3 volt supply and/or the 5 volt supply can beused to power small external devices. For example, the 3 volt supplyand/or the 5 volt supply from the power system circuit block 480 may beused to power a small master LED Controller system such as amicrocontroller device coupled to the LED Line driver 425.

The LED Line driver IC 420 may implement a ground fault circuitinterrupter (GFCI) system for safety and compliance. Specifically, thepower system 480 of the LED Line driver IC 420 may receive informationfrom the external power supply 410 as to how much current is beingtransmitted down the driver line starting at point VSupply 411.Alternatively, the LED line driver IC 420 may detect this current insome manner well known in the art such as using a current sensor. Thissource current amount may then be compared with the amount of current atthe end of the driver line (the output current). For example, the amountof current reaching the end of the driver line may be detected bymeasuring the voltage at point Vfetsrc 417. (Note that some current mayalso pass toward the VClamp 412 location such that the current passingthat location may also need to be considered.) If the source currentdiffers significantly from the output current then some electricalcurrent may be leaking to ground at a location other than the ground 465of the power supply 410 at the end of the driver line. If there is acurrent leaking to locations other than points Vfetsrc 417 and VClamp412, then some type of potentially dangerous malfunction may beoccurring. In response, the LED Line driver IC 420 may turn off thesystem and stop driving current down the driver line. In someembodiments, the LED Line driver IC 420 may stop for a period of timeand then retry operation at a later time to determine if the problem wasmisdiagnosed or just a transient problem. Whether a transient problem ora significant problem has been detected, the LED Line driver IC 420 maytransmit error and diagnostic information up to a controller systemusing data output 431.

The Individually Controlled LED Unit

As set forth in the preceding sections and illustrated in FIG. 2A, theLED line driver circuit 220 drives a modulated current source on driverline 221 that is coupled to one or more individually controllable LEDunits (250-1 to 250-N). The only means of electrical contact to a LEDunit 250 is through that single driver line 221. Thus, a LED unit 250must receive all the resources the LED unit 250 needs to operate fromthat single driver line 221. To accomplish this, the driver line 221serves multiple functions for the LED units 250. Each of the LED units(250-1 to 250-N) draws its needed operating power from the electricalcurrent on driver line 221. Each LED unit also demodulates LED controldata modulated onto that electrical current by LED line driver circuit220. In one embodiment, each LED unit 250 also uses the nominalelectrical current level of the driven on the single driver line 221 asa current reference value. This section describes the internals of theLED units 250 in greater detail.

FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of one embodiment of an individuallycontrollable LED unit 750. In the particular embodiment illustrated inFIG. 7, the LED unit 750 is made up of a LED controller 760, four lightemitting diodes (LEDs) 781, and a supply capacitor 729. The supplycapacitor 729 captures, stores, and supplies operating power to the LEDunit 750. The LED controller 760 may be an integrated circuit thatprovides most of the functionality of the LED unit 750.

The LED unit 750 is coupled to an upstream LED line Driver circuit (suchas the LED line driver 425 illustrated in FIG. 4) through driver lineinput 721. Specifically, the driver line input 721 provides a modulatedelectrical current source to a power system 720 on the LED controller760. The operation of the power system 720 will be described withreference to FIG. 8.

Initially, when a LED controller 760 starts in a powered-down state, aboot-strap analog power system is initially activated as set forth instage 805. The boot-strap analog power system draws increasing currentwhile testing if it has exceeded a specified low voltage threshold(approximately 1.5 Volts in one embodiment) at stage 807. When theboot-strap analog power system reaches the specified threshold voltagevalue, the boot-strap analog power system is turned off and the mainpower system 720 is activated. The main power system 720 will begindrawing power from the driver line to charge the local supply capacitor729 at stage 810. This charging of the local supply capacitor 729 willincrease the voltage drop across the LED controller 760 from the driverline input 721 to the driver line output 722. (When the charging iscomplete, the power system 720 will shunt the current directly from thedriver line input 721 to the driver line output 722 and operate on localpower from the local supply capacitor 729.)

With the boot-strap analog power system, each individual LED unit 750 ona driver line will draw less than the specified threshold voltage (1.5Volts in one embodiment) upon starting up such that overall voltage dropof all the LED units 750 on a driver line is relatively low.Specifically, the cumulative voltage drop will be at most the thresholdvoltage times the number of LED units on the driver line. When a firstLED unit crosses the threshold value, that LED unit will enter the maincapacitor charging state which increases the voltage drop across thatspecific LED unit. Since the voltage drop for that LED unit isincreased, the remaining voltage available to the other LED units willbe reduced such that those units will not reach the specified thresholdvoltage as fast. But one by one, each individual LED unit willeventually pass the specified threshold voltage value and begin chargingthe local supply capacitor 729 to fully power up. In this manner, theboot-strap analog power system in each LED unit prevents all of the LEDunits from attempting to enter the capacitor charging state at the sametime and thereby exceed the voltage capabilities of the power supply forthe driver line. During the normal operating state, each individual LEDunit only periodically unshunts for a very short amount of time to keepa needed operating voltage supply.

Referring back to FIG. 8, the power system 720 will charge up theexternal supply capacitor 729 at stage 810 until the power system 720determines at stage 815 that the external supply capacitor 729 enoughpower to activate the circuitry in the LED controller 760 (including thepower system 720). The external supply capacitor 729 essentially acts asa small battery for powering both the LED controller 760 and the LEDs781 on the LED unit 750. The power system 720 will periodically unshuntto draw current from the driver line 721 to recharge the supplycapacitor 729 as power requirements dictate.

Once enough power is stored in external capacitor 729, the circuitry inthe LED controller 760 will enter a start-up mode at step 820 whereinonly a subset of circuits are active. For example, the LED drivercircuits 780 are not yet active. During the start-up mode, the controlcircuitry in the LED controller 760 will perform a set of start-upactions wherein the LED controller 760 configures itself based on thestate of non-volatile fuses in the fuse block 741. The charging of thesupply capacitor 729 may be turned off during the start-up routine inorder to allow other LED units on the same driver line to charge up andenter the start-up mode without creating a high cumulative voltage onthe driver line.

After the configuration has been completed, the LED controller 760 willenter a normal operating mode at step 840. The power system 720 willmonitor the state of charge in the supply capacitor and switch from lineshunting to capacitor charging as necessary to ensure that sufficientcharge is available in the external capacitor 729 in order to operatethe LED controller 760. Specifically, when power is needed, the shuntwill be turned off and charge will accumulate in the external capacitor729. When the capacitor is deemed full, the power system 720 stopscharging and shunts the line current such that the current coming indriver line input 721 passes through power system 720 to driver lineoutput 722 with just a small voltage drop. The current passing out thedriver line output 722 will drive subsequent downstream LED units andeventually loop back to the LED line driver circuit to complete thecircuit.

In addition to maintaining the needed charge in the capacitor tooperate, the power system 720 may also be used to carefully monitor thepower needs of the LED controller 760 at stage 845 such that the amountof charge stored in the capacitor may be adjusted accordingly. Forexample, when a LED controller 760 first turns on some blue LEDs, thepower needs of the LED controller 760 may increase such that the systemproceeds to stage 850 to indicate the additional needed power to drivethe blue LEDs. If the LED controller 760 later turns off the blue LEDsand turns on lower-power consuming red LEDs, then the LED controller 760may proceed to step 860 to indicate that less power is needed to drivethe LEDs. In this manner, the LED controller 760 uses power in a veryefficient manner since only the minimum needed voltage to operate theLED unit 750 is maintained on the external capacitor 729.

If there are a large number of LED units 750 on a single line, then thecumulative voltage of multiple LED units 750 in series wherein each LEDunit 750 is attempting to charge a local capacitor can become high. Toprevent this situation, the current can be increased and the multipleLED units 750 can be instructed to draw power in a coordinated manner.For example, only a limited number of LED units 750 may be permitted tounshunt to charge the local supply capacitors at the same time. By usingan increased amount of current on the line, each LED unit 750 on theline will be able to charge its supply capacitor at a faster rate. Byincreasing the line current and limiting the number of units that maysimultaneously draw current, the overall voltage of the line can be keptwithin a prescribed range.

One method of coordinating the shunting of different LED units 750 is ona bit by bit basis. Each bit in the data frame can assumed to benumbered starting from zero to N−1 wherein N is the number of bits in adata frame. Then, each LED unit 750 can be instructed to only unshuntevery K bits where K is a number selected by the LED line driver. Forexample, if the number four is selected as K then first group of LEDunits 750 will only unshunt on bits 0, 4, 8, etc. A second group of LEDunits 750 will only unshunt on bits 1, 5, 9, etc. A third group of LEDunits 750 will only unshunt on bits 2, 6, 10, etc. And a fourth group ofLED units 750 will only unshunt on bits 3, 7, 11, etc. By coordinatingunshunting on a bit by bit basis (as opposed to a longer time period)every LED unit 750 will not have to wait long before being given anothertime when the LED unit can draw more charge.

The power system 720 includes an analog circuit section that generates abandgap reference voltage and has the capability to set the regulatedvoltage to just the right amount to allow all the local LEDs to turn onas set forth above. The power system 720 monitors for bad LED outputs(short circuits or open circuits) and attempts to regulate the voltageto the minimum voltage level needed to work with the LEDs that arepowered on. All changes to the shunt/unshunt operation of the linecurrent is performed in coordination with the data on the line, so thatall LED chips are transitioning at the same time. This coordination isdone to minimize potential data errors.

The analog section of the power system 720 contains a bandgap referencethat is used as a voltage reference for three of the power system's fourmain power related functions. First, the bandgap reference is used togenerate a voltage source (approximately 2.8 to 3.2 volts) for the coredigital circuitry. Second, the bandgap reference is a reference to adigitally controlled voltage divider circuit that samples the LED driversupply and compares it to the bandgap reference. Finally, bandgapreference voltage may be used in an over-voltage/over-current detector.The over-voltage detector uses carefully matched poly resistors todetect excessive voltage on the LED driver supply and measure linecurrent. The over-voltage detector is enabled any time the capacitor 729is charging. If there is an insufficiently sized capacitor such that anover-voltage condition is detected, then the chip will transitionimmediately to protect the chip.

The fourth function of the power system 720 is a line shunting operationperformed by a line shunt and line current rectifier section that isdigitally set to shunt line current to the driver line out 722 or chargethe supply capacitor 729. In normal operation, the power system 720 willperiodically unshunt the line current such that current is directed torecharge the supply capacitor 729. This unshunting may be performed in amanner coordinated with other LED units coupled to the same driver linesuch that not too many LED units are simultaneously attempting to drawpower current from the driver line.

The power system 720 unshunting of the driver line 721 to charge thesupply capacitor 729 is a very critical function for the LED controller760 since the charging of the supply capacitor is required to obtain theelectrical power required to operate the LED controller 760. Similarly,the shunting of the driver line 721 after supply capacitor charging isalso very critical since if the power system 720 fails to quickly shuntthe current to the output driver line 722 when the supply capacitor 729is fully charged, then the LED controller 760 may malfunction due toexcessive voltage that breaks down the integrated circuitry of the LEDcontroller 760. Thus, the shunting and unshunting of the input driverline 721 is a task that requires careful control by power system 720.

Fortunately, this situation requiring a careful balance provides a verygraceful manner in which a malfunctioning LED controller on a driverline in series with other LED controllers may malfunction withoutsignificantly affecting the other LED controllers on the same driverline. Specifically, if the circuitry in a malfunctioning LED controller760 malfunctions in some manner wherein the power system 720 no longercharges the external supply capacitor 729 but instead remains in apermanent shunted state, then that power system 720 acts as a shortcircuit that the line current passes through (generally with a slightvoltage drop across the shunt). Thus, the other individual LEDcontrollers on the same driver line will continue to receive currentfrom the line driver.

On the other hand, if the circuitry in a malfunctioning LED controller760 malfunctions in a different manner wherein the power system 720becomes stuck in an unshunted state thus continually charging theexternal supply capacitor (and fails to enter a shunting state thatdirects the current around the external supply capacitor), then thatpower system 720 acts as an open circuit that would affect all of theother LED controllers on the same driver line. However, all of thatcurrent entering the LED controller 760 will increase the voltage acrossthe power system 720 of that LED controller 760 until the voltage acrosspower system 720 eventually causes a breakdown of the integrated circuit(similar to a Zener diode or perhaps just a short circuit). Once such abreakdown occurs, the driver line current will then again pass from thedriver line input 721, through the malfunctioned LED controller 760 andout the driver line output 722. The current passing through themalfunctioned LED controller 760 will then allow the other LEDcontrollers on the same driver line (721 and 722) to continue operatingnormally. For additional protection, a breakdown device (such as a Zenerdiode or similar device) that requires a higher voltage than normallyexhibited by the LED controller 760 may be placed in parallel with a LEDcontroller 760. In this manner, if the LED controller 760 malfunctionsin an open circuit manner, the voltage will increase until the highervoltage needed to activate the breakdown device is reached therebycausing an electrical path around the malfunctioned LED controller 760.

To prevent damage to the LED controller 760, a temperature system maymonitor the temperature of the LED controller 760 integrated circuit. Ifthe temperature exceeds a danger threshold, the power system 720 mayenter a shut down state to prevent any damage to the LED controller 760.In one embodiment, the power system 720 may enter a state wherein thepower system 720 enters a permanently shunted state such that currentcoming in the driver line input 721 passes directly through to thedriver line output 722. In this manner, the other LED units on the samedriver line can continue to operate normally. If a particular LEDcontroller 760 repeatedly enters such a shut down state then that LEDcontroller 760 may need to be replaced. In other embodiments, the LEDcontroller 760 may enter a reduced functionality state wherein just asubset of the electronics continues to operate and it only rarelyunshunts to obtain additional power. In this manner, the LED controller760, could periodically retest the temperature and reactivate itself ifthe temperature is reduced.

Two non power related functions that may be provided by the power system720 are the creation of a current reference value and the creation of acurrent copy for data extraction. To drive a LED with the mostconsistent light output properties, a constant current amount should bepassed through the LED. When the brightness of a LED is controlled byvarying the amount of current passed through the LED then the spectrumof colors emitted by the LED may vary with the amount of current passedthrough the LED. Since a consistent spectrum of colors is the idealgoal, the technique of modulating the current amount does not providethe desired performance. Furthermore, the brightness of a LED has a nonlinear relationship to the current strength such that it is difficult toaccurately control the LED brightness using current variance.

Instead of using the current strength to control the brightness of anindividual LED, the brightness of a LED is typically controlled bycontrolling a timed on/off duty cycle of a constant current amount. Onewell-known system of implementing this technique for controlling poweris generally known as “pulse width modulation” since the brightness ofthe LED is proportional to the width of constant current strength pulsesduring a defined time period. In one embodiment, the system of thepresent disclosure uses a different technique wherein both the number ofconstant current pulses and the width of those constant current pulsesduring a defined time period are modulated to obtain the desiredbrightness. This alternative system is named “Reduced FlickerModulation” (RFM) and will be fully described in a later sectioncovering the LED driver circuits 780.

For optimal LED output performance, the amount of current used to drivethe LEDs 781 during each constant current pulse should as consistent aspossible. Thus, a consistent current reference value is needed. Variousdifferent methods may be used to create a current reference value. Twodifferent systems of having the power system 720 create a currentreference value are hereby provided.

A first method of having the power system 720 construct a consistentcurrent reference value is to use a voltage reference value.Specifically, a consistent current reference value may be created bygenerating a consistent voltage reference value with a bandgap circuitand then passing that consistent voltage reference through a resistor tocreate a desired consistent current reference value. This currentreference value may then be provided to the LED driver circuits 780 thatwill use the current reference to create a constant current that will beused to drive the LEDs 781 in a consistent manner.

In an alternate embodiment, the power system 720 may create a currentreference by sampling current on the driver line. Specifically, thepower system 720 may sample the driver line current to determine anaverage driver line current value (the nominal line current asillustrated in FIG. 3) from the driver line 721. This average linecurrent value may then be used as a current reference value to the LEDdriver circuits 780. The driver line current average is onlyupdated/determined while the power system 720 is shunting the driverline.

The other non power related function performed by the power system 720is the creation of a line current copy for data extraction. To enablethe recovery of data modulated onto the line current of driver line 721,the power system 720 provides a downscaled copy of either the shuntingcurrent sense or the unshunting (or diode) current sense to the dataextractor block 730. The shunting current sense is provided when thepower system 720 is in shunting mode and the unshunting (or diode)current sense is provided when the power system 720 is charging theexternal supply capacitor 729.

The clocking and data extractor block 730 receives a copy of the driverline current from the power system 720 and is responsible fordemodulating the data (such as LED controller configuration commands andactual LED control data) that has been modulated onto the driver linecurrent by the LED line driver circuit 425 of FIG. 4. In order todemodulate the data from the driver line current, the data extractorblock 730 must first generate its own internal clock signal, then use adigital phase-locked loop (DPLL) to synchronize itself with the datarate of the data modulated onto the driver line current, and finallyproperly align itself with the current ramps modulated onto the driverline current to extract the data.

To generate an internal clock signal, a digital subsection of theclocking and data extractor block 730 implements a fast ring oscillatorand has an associated section of digital logic that runs at the fastring oscillator rate. This fast oscillator rate digital logic subsectionprovides several functions that can only be provided with the fasterclock rate. First, the fast clock section provides the digital supportto ensure the centering logic that locates the center of current rampsis properly centered on the line current data stream. The secondfunction is a divide by N counter of the fast free running ringoscillator clock. The divide by N counter only updates on core clockboundaries to help prevent glitches. The divide by N counter value fromthe fast clock section is used to help implement the DPLL circuit thatlocks onto the data modulated on the driver line 721. The data rate ofthe data stream on the driver line obtained using the digitalphase-locked loop circuit is then used to create a core clock signalthat is used to drive most of the LED controller 760. In one embodiment,the core clock rate operates at eight times (8×) the data rate of thedriver line.

In one embodiment, the clocking logic initially sets a fixed value intothe divide by N counter, and counts the shunt A/D converter crossings togenerate an initial estimate of the data clock frequency value. Theclocking logic then loads this initial estimated frequency value intothe digital phase-locked loop circuit and the digital phase-locked loopcircuit tries to lock onto the driver line data rate. If the clockinglogic does not obtain a lock confirmation from the digital phase-lockedloop circuit within a particular time period, it enters aresynchronization mode where the clocking logic restarts the clockfrequency measurement process.

The main portion of the clocking and data extractor block 730 operatesat the core clock rate that is generated using the digital phase-lockedloop circuit. Much of main portion of the clocking and data extractorblock 730 comprises the circuitry used to implement that digitalphase-locked loop circuit (with help from the fast clock section).

In addition to the digital phase-locked loop, the main portion of theclocking and data extractor block 730 includes the data extractor logicfor extracting the actual data from the driver line signal. The dataextractor logic is responsible for discriminating between the datacenter and data edge transitions because the digital phase-locked loopmight lock to the data bit edge transition instead of the data bitcenter. Specifically, referring to FIG. 9, the signal in a proper databit time 921 may appear almost identical to the signal in an incorrectdata bit time 922 where the DPLL has locked onto the data bit edgetransition instead of the data bit center. To prevent this problem, thedata extractor logic looks for the signal before data bit center to bedifferent than after the center since a proper data bit will alwaysappear this way. Specifically, incorrect data bit time 925 illustrateshow the signal appears the same both before 931 and after 932 theincorrect data center (an actual data bit edge). This informs the dataextractor logic that the digital phase-locked loop has locked onto adata bit edge transition instead of a data bit center. If there are toooften the same value before and after, the data extractor logic movesthe alignment a ½ bit cycle to properly align with the data bit center.

Referring back to FIG. 7, after obtaining a proper lock onto the datarate and properly aligning with the data bit centers, the clocking anddata extractor block 730 passes the demodulated data stream to the dataprocessing core 740. The data processing core 740 is a block of digitallogic that processes the incoming LED control data. In one embodiment,the data processing core 740 is responsible for identifying individualdata frames; parsing the data frames to obtain LED controllerconfiguration commands, LED control commands, and LED parameter data;and then executing the commands extracted from the LED control data.

In one embodiment, the first action performed by the data processingcore 740 on incoming LED control data is descrambling of the datastream. The data stream encoded onto the driver line 721 may bescrambled for various different reasons.

One reason for scrambling is to prevent the LED unit 750 from locking tothe wrong data framing signal. If a LED control data value repeatedlysent to a particular LED unit 750 happened to be the same as the framingsynchronization header value, then the LED controllers might lock to thewrong place of the data stream and never see valid data frames.Scrambling of data prevents this situation since even if the datapayload is a fixed value, the data scrambling causes it to be differenton the driver line each data frame. Thus, the data scrambling greatlyreduces the probability of creating false framing patterns in the datastream. Another reason to scramble the data is to reduce electromagneticinterference issues since the scrambling of the data spreads out theenergy. To handle the scrambled data stream, a descrambler unit 742 inthe data processing core 740 initially processes the incoming data bylooking for frame synchronization markers and then descrambles thescrambled data frame to obtain the actual data commands in the dataframe.

In one particular embodiment, a LED control data frame consists of 40bytes as illustrated in FIG. 2B. The following table illustrates thestructure of the example data frame illustrated in FIG. 2B:

TABLE 1 Example Data Frame Byte Name Position Function/Value StartFrame[0] This is the ‘start frame’ synchronization indicator for the statemachines to lock onto. This value is not scrambled. Cmd [1] The commandwhich is being sent to the LED controller. Addr [2] The LED controlleraddress associated with the frame. This address is used to select whichLED units on a driver line will respond to the command in this dataframe Payload [38:3] 36 byte payload. For LED control commands, thisdata payload is the parameter data associated with individual pixels andmay be 4, 6, 8, or 12 bits wide. For LED controller configurationcommands, the payload data may identify fuses or control registers to bechanged. CRC [39]  A CRC check, which can be enabled to improve immunityto any erroneous commands.

Referring to the preceding table, the first byte is a frame header usedto indicate the start of a data frame. The frame header byte is notscrambled and the remaining thirty-nine (39) bytes may be scrambledusing a v.34 self synchronizing scrambler. The data frame detectionlogic of the descrambler unit 742 searches the incoming data for arepeating frame header in the data stream. The descrambler unit 742attempts to lock onto that pattern. If no data frame is found after acertain amount of time then the descrambler unit 742 will inform theclocking and data extractor block 730 of the problem. The clocking anddata extractor block 730 may then switch to a new frequency and assert aresynchronize signal. This action will reset any possible frame locksthat might have been started and start the frame detection logic of thedescrambler unit 742 searching for a data frame once again.

When the frame detection logic of the descrambler unit 742 detects adata frame pattern, the descrambler unit 742 will assert a valid framesignal back to the clocking and data extractor block 730 to indicatevalid data. In one embodiment, the descrambler unit 742 is active atleast one frame before the data parser block 743 gets valid data to makesure that the descrambler unit 742 has locked onto the incoming datastream and has the proper output data. This ensures that the descramblerunit 742 has synchronized with the incoming data stream. Once thedescrambler unit 742 has obtained a proper lock on the incoming data andcompleted descrambling processing, the descrambler unit 742 passes thedescrambled data frames to the Data Parser 743 for processing of thecontents of the data frame.

The Data Parser 743 parses the data frames. The Data Parser 743identifies the command in the data frame (a LED controller configurationcommand or a LED control command) and decodes the payload of data frame(LED controller configuration parameter or LED control data parameters).In one embodiment, the Data Parser 743 will perform the optional cyclicredundancy code (CRC) check and if the data is good the Data Parser 743passes the decoded command and parameter data to execution logic in thedata processing core 740.

In one embodiment, the Data Parser 743 has multiple different pixeladdressing modes that are used to determine if a particular data framethat was received should be applied to this specific LED controller 760.A standard addressing mode places a specific LED unit address in theaddress field of a data frame. In one embodiment that address specifiesa start address for the LED control data in the data field. The specificLED unit identified in the address field will use the first item of LEDcontrol data in the payload field up to the LED control data width. Thenext sequentially addressed LED unit will use the next item of LEDcontrol data in the data payload field up to the LED control data widthand so on. In other embodiments, the address may specify a single LEDunit or a specified number of consecutive LED units. Note that in thepresent system, the size of the data payload is 288 bits such that itmay store even multiples of 2, 4, 6, 8, or 12 bit wide data values.

In a group address mode, the LED control data in the data payload willonly be applied to LED units assigned to a particular group. The controldata may simply be applied to all the LED units in the group. In oneembodiment, the system uses a bitmap processing engine that may examinea bit map in the payload to determine which subset of LED unit membersof a group should change and how those LED unit members should change.Thus, each LED unit is addressable individually in the standard linearaddressing system and each LED unit is addressable individually as partof an assigned group.

Data errors detected by the cyclic redundancy code (CRC) check may behandled in various different manners. In one embodiment, if the optionalCRC protection has been enabled, the data processing core 740 will startto ignore data if two CRC errors are detected during a window of about25 data frames. Furthermore, the LED outputs may be turned off duringthis period and the data processing core 740 will not respond to newcommands. In one embodiment, the data processing core 740 will continueexamining incoming LED control data frames until four data frames withcorrect CRC values are received. At that point, the data processing core740 will begin processing new commands.

Many different types of commands may be implemented on a LED Controller760. In one particular embodiment, three main types of commands areimplemented: a pixel data update without a global update, a pixel dataupdate with a global update, and a write to a control register withinthe LED Controller 760. A pixel update without a global update stores aset of parameters for driving one or more LEDs into a shadow register.However, those LED parameters are not immediately used. Then, when aglobal update command is received (addressed to this LED controller 760or any other LED controller) the stored pixel data parameters are thenused change the output of the LED driver circuits 780. In this manner,changes to many pixels can be synchronized as is needed for videodisplays and other display systems that operate with a series ofdistinct display frames.

When the data processing core 740 receives a write to a controlregister, the data processing core 740 will identify the appropriatecontrol register in the control registers & fuses block 741 and writethe associated data value into that control register. The contents ofthe control registers are volatile control bits that control theoperation of the circuitry in the LED controller 760. Certain patternsof writes to control registers can be used to activate various functionsinstead of just setting the value of a specified control register.

In addition to the volatile control registers, the control registers &fuses block 741 also contains a set of non volatile fuses. The fuses maybe burned in order to specify a set of permanent configurationinformation in a LED controller 760. For example, one embodiment of aLED unit 750 implements an eight bit address value using eight fuses. Inthis manner a string of 256 uniquely addressable LED Units may becoupled to a single LED line driver circuit. To program the fuses in thecontrol registers & fuses block 741, a specific pattern of writes tospecified control register addresses is sent. (Note that there may ormay not actually be real control registers at those specific controlregister addresses.) When the proper pattern of writes to specifiedcontrol register addresses is sent, the data processing core 740 willburn a particular identified fuse in the control registers & fuses block741.

The fuses in the control registers & fuses block 741 may both be used bya manufacturer that creates LED controllers 760 and a user of LEDcontrollers 760. The manufacturer may use the fuses in the controlregisters & fuses block 741 to create a wide variety of different LEDcontrollers with different performance characteristics and capabilitiesfrom the same integrated circuit design. For example, fuses in thecontrol registers & fuses block 741 may be used to specify the number ofLEDs controlled by the LED controllers 760, the accuracy of the LEDcontrol (4 bit, 6 bit, 8 bit, or 12 bit, in one embodiment), and variousother LED controller features that may be enabled or disabled. In thismanner, the manufacturer of LED controllers 760 may segment themarketplace of LED controllers 760 depending on how many features arerequired for a particular application.

Fuses in the control registers & fuses block 741 may also be used tostore calibration information in LED controllers 760. Imperfections andinconsistencies in semiconductor process technology mean that no twointegrated circuits will behave exactly the same. With purely digitalintegrated circuits, small differences will not affect the operation dueto the discrete quantized data values used in digital circuits. (Largeimperfections in the manufacturing of digital integrated circuit deviceswill create inoperable devices that are discarded.) With the LEDcontroller 760, the presence of numerous analog circuits will mean thatmanufacturing differences may noticeably affect the behavior ofdifferent LED controllers.

To deal with these behavioral differences, each individual LEDcontroller 760 will be tested and various differences between differentLED controllers can be compensated for by using the fuses to storecalibration data that adjusts for slight differences between differentLED controllers. For example, the brightness of a LED is controlled bythe amount of current that passes through the LED. But due toimperfections in integrated circuit manufacturing, the amount of currentprovided by the LED driver circuits 780 of different LED controllerswhen commanded to provide the exact same brightness level may not beidentical. Thus, fuses in the control registers & fuses block 741 may beused to store current tweak/trim values designed to calibrate thecurrent delivered to LEDs by the LED driver circuits 780. Each differentLED channel on a LED controller 760 may receive its own individualcurrent tweak/trim value.

Note that LEDs themselves may also suffer from imperfect manufacturingtechnology. Different LEDs that receive the exact same amount of currentwill not output the exact same brightness. Thus, by coupling LEDs 781 toa LED controller 760 before testing, slight manufacturing differences inboth the LED controller 760 and the LEDs 781 can be compensated for withcurrent tweak/trim calibration data programmed into the LED controller760. This ability to calibrate current output provided by the LED drivercircuits 780 allows the LED controller 760 to use less expensive LEDsthat have not passed strict brightness calibration tests since thecurrent calibration values will compensate for the varying LED inaddition to the varying LED driver circuits 780.

The users of a LED controller 760 may program a set of user accessiblefuses for various different application specific features made availableto the users. For example, a LED controller 760 may be designed tooperate with either common anode LEDs or common cathode LEDs. The usageof a CRC value to test data frames for errors may be specified by afuse. And, as set forth earlier, a set of device address fuses may alsobe user programmable.

On rare occasions, a fuse that has been burned out may later appear asnot burned out if various elements within an integrated circuit migratedue to heat or other causes. If this occurs, the fuse programming doneto a LED controller 760 may become corrupted thus causing the device tooperate improperly. To prevent this from occurring, one embodimentallows for extra fuses that may be burned in order to implement an errorcorrecting coding (ECC) scheme. Thus, if a fuse becomes unburned, theECC can be used to determine which fuse changed and adjust the operationof the LED controller 760 accordingly.

As set forth earlier, some embodiments of the disclosed system may allowthe LED line driver to request status from a LED unit such that the LEDunit will respond to the status request with the requested information.Similarly, some embodiments may have the LED units provide anacknowledgement after receiving a command. To respond to a statusrequest (or provide an acknowledgement), the data processing core 740may request the power system 720 to operate its shunt circuitry in amanner that is detectable by the LED line driver during a specified timewindow. In order to determine which LED unit 750 is responding, the LEDline driver may only make one request at a time or provide a differenttime window for each LED unit 750 to respond within. Another method ofsignalling with the shunt circuitry is to have a power system perform ahigh frequency burst of unshunt and shunt operations such that the LEDline driver could detect a frequency.

Referring back to FIG. 7, the final circuit block of the LED controller760 is a circuit block containing LED driver circuits 780 for drivingthe LEDs 781. There is an independent LED driver circuit for each LEDoutput on the LED controller 760. In the embodiment of FIG. 7, there arefour different LED driver circuits for driving the four different LEDs781. However, other embodiments contain LED driver circuits for handlinga different number of LEDs 781. In the particular embodiment depicted inFIG. 7 the LEDs 781 are wired in a common cathode configuration. In acommon anode configuration, the LED symbols would face in the otherdirection.

Each independent LED driver circuit has both digital and analogcircuitry portions. The digital circuitry portion interfaces with thedata processing core 740 and control registers & fuses 741. The digitalcircuitry portion receives the digital information specifying anintensity value indicating how much power a LED should receive. Thisintensity value is then adjusted according to various factors and usedto drive the constant current output. The analog LED driver circuitryreceives a current reference from the power system 729 and creates theconstant current that will be used to actually drive the associateddevice.

The digital portion of a LED driver circuit controls exactly when anassociated LED is to be powered on and off. To determine how to properlydrive the LEDs, the digital portion consults the control registers &fuses 741 for configuration information. The control registers & fuses741 may specify several different parameters such as if the LED isallowed to operate, if the LEDs are sinking or sourcing current (usingcommon anode mode or the common cathode mode illustrated in FIG. 7),what the current trim/tweak value is for the LED, and a LED turn-ondelay factor. This LED configuration information is combined with theLED control information received in a LED control data frame thatspecifies a LED intensity value (which may be zero if the LED is to beturned off) to determine how the LED will be driven. Various differentoutput modulation systems may be used to drive the LEDs.

In addition to the fixed current trim/tweak values as designated by thefuses, the LED driver circuits 780 may also dynamically adjust thecurrent for LEDs. For example, the output of a temperature sensorcircuit may be provided to the LED driver circuits 780. The LED drivercircuits 780 may then adjust the current provided to the LEDs inresponse to the ambient temperature. In this manner, the LED drivercircuits 780 can adjust for temperature differences that may affect theperformance of LEDs and the LED driver circuit itself. Note that byhaving each individual LED unit have an internal temperature sensor, thedisclosed system allows for properly correction on a pixel by pixelbasis. Thus, if the sun is shining on some LED units but not others (dueto a shadow), each individual LED unit will make the appropriatecorrections based upon its local conditions.

In a traditional pulse width modulation (PWM) embodiment, the outputpower is determined by the width of a pulse output during a defined timeperiod. For example, FIG. 10A defines a time period of 16 time units andhow a four bit intensity value may be represented as pulse widthmodulated power in that time period. If the intensity is zero (“0000”),there is no pulse. If the intensity value is one (“0001”) then a pulsewith a width of one time slot is output. If the intensity value is two(“0010”) then a pulse with a width of two time slots is output. And soon up to an intensity of fifteen (“1111”) wherein a pulse that isfifteen time slots wide is output. The traditional pulse widthmodulation described with reference to FIG. 10A may be used within theLED driver circuit 780 in LED controller unit of the present disclosure.However, a novel output method referred to as “reduced flickermodulation” (RFM) may also be used which provides several advantages.

The reduced flicker modulation system provides at least three advantagesover the traditional pulse width modulation system. Specifically, thereduced flicker modulation system: (1) Increases the switching(switch-on and switch-off) frequency to higher frequency ranges and thusreduces perceptible flicker; (2) Spreads out the electrical currentusage across time thus reducing peak power requirements, and (3)introduces a randomization that prevents various data dependent patternsfrom affecting the output in a noticeable manner. Spreading out thecurrent usage is important in systems with limited power availability.For example, if there is only 140 milliamps of current available onaverage (buffered by a capacitor) and there are two LEDs operating at aconstant current of 100 milliamps with each set at a 60% duty cycle thenon the average there is enough current. However, if a PWM system wereused to drive the LEDs then the PWM would have both LEDs on concurrentlyfor at least 10% of the time, during which the two LEDs would draw 200milliamps combined, thus drawing more current than is available onaverage. With the RFM system, the current usage is spread out moreevenly across time such that the two LEDs would not draw more currentthan is available on average and thus avoid overloading the currentsupply from the line.

To increase the switching frequency and spread the current usage outmore evenly, the reduced flicker modulation system provides a constantcurrent output for substantially the same number of time units during agiven time period as a PWM system but the time units when the constantcurrent is turned on are more evenly distributed across the time period.FIG. 10B illustrates how the reduced flicker modulation would output theconstant current pulses for the same energy output of the PWM example ofFIG. 10A.

To generate the output patterns of FIG. 10B, the four patterns of FIG.10C associated with each bit position can be logically ORed if therespective bit position of the intensity value is on. For example, ifthe intensity level 9 (“1001”) were specified, then the patternassociated with the most significant bit position (“1000”) and thepattern associated with the least significant bit position and the(“0001”) could be logically ORed together as illustrated in FIG. 10C.

When comparing the output of the pulse width modulation system of FIG.10A to the output of the reduced flicker modulation system of FIG. 10B,it can be seen that more individual pulses will occur per time periodwhen outputting power with the reduced flicker modulation system.Specifically, with the pulse width modulation system of FIG. 10A thereis only one constant current pulse for each time period whereas thereduced flicker modulation system that spreads the energy more evenlyacross the time period has multiple constant current pulses. Eachconstant current pulse created with either system will not be aperfectly formed ideal square pulse. FIG. 10D illustrates a close up ofan ideal current pulse drawn with dashed lines and a more realisticcurrent pulse drawn with a bolded solid line. As illustrated in FIG.10D, the rise time and fall time of the constant current pulse will notbe zero as illustrated in the ideal square pulse. With a real constantcurrent pulse, the rise time will generally be longer than the falltime. (This lengthening of the rise time is referred to as the “LEDturn-on delay” in this document.) Thus, the amount of energy outputduring a real constant current pulse will be less than the amount ofenergy that would be output during an ideal square constant currentpulse. This reduced energy output will therefore cause the LED output tobe less intense than desired. If this effect is not compensated for,there will be non linearity in the intensity output scale.

To compensate for this effect, the digital circuitry of the LED drivercircuit 780 may count the number of constant current pulses that occurand add an extra constant current pulse time unit after a designatedmultiple of constant current pulses. For example, if the real constantcurrent pulse of a single time unit outputs 5% less energy than theideal square constant current pulse of a single time unit then for everytwenty pulses that occur, an extra time unit of constant current will beadded since twenty times five percent equals one hundred percent, or afull time unit pulse was lost. In one embodiment, an adjustable LEDturn-on delay value is used to store a representation of the amount ofenergy lost on each pulse. The LED turn-on delay value is added to anaccumulator for the associated LED after each constant current pulse.When the accumulator overflows, an extra time unit is added to the LED“on” time to make up for this missing energy.

As set forth in the description of the clocking and data extractor block730, the LED controller 760 may use a free running internal ringoscillator to create the core clock signals used to drive the digitalcircuitry. The fast free running ring oscillator clock may exhibit someclock jitter. To create a core clock, the fast free running ringoscillator clock is reduced with a divide by N counter controlled by adigital phase-locked loop. The use of a digital phase-locked loop tocreate the core data clock will introduce some quantization error intothe core clock. As a result of this, the internal core clock can haveslightly different time lengths for the individual core clock cycles.Since the core clock is used to drive the LED outputs, the LED on timeunits will also have these slightly different time lengths.

When this small clocking inaccuracy of LED on times is combined with aLED control data pattern in phase with the clocking inaccuracy, theeffect will be exaggerated such that the LED output may be noticeablyaffected. To prevent any such small clocking imperfection from combiningwith LED on/off data pattern in manner that adversely affects the LEDoutput performance, a randomization of the turning on and off of the LEDoutputs is introduced into the LED on/off data pattern. Specifically,the times at which the LED will be turned on may be randomly movedaround within a time period. However, the LED will still be turned onfor the same amount of time during the time period such that the net LEDpower output is unchanged. For example, FIG. 10E illustrates threedifferent possible randomizations of the output pattern of FIG. 10C. Inone embodiment, this randomization is added to the LED on/off controlpattern using a Linear Feedback Shift Register (LFSR) that creates apseudo-random series of bits. This randomization introduced into the LEDon/off output pattern thereby effectively eliminates the possibility ofa data dependent pattern interacting with the imperfect clocking inmanner that would adversely affect the LED intensity.

In addition to the two constant current methods of controlling LEDintensity set forth above (pulse width modulation and reduced flickermodulation), other means may be used to drive the LEDs 781. For example,varying the current strength provided to the LEDs may be used to controlthe brightness of the LEDs 781. However, this method should be avoidedsince it will not provide good consistent color output.

The digital circuitry portion uses the analog portion of a LED drivercircuit 780 to drive the associated LED. The analog LED driver circuituses a current reference received from the power system 720 to drive theLED with constant current pulses. The analog LED driver circuit signalsto the power system 720 when the analog LED driver circuit does not haveenough voltage from the power system 720 to operate properly. The analogLED driver circuit also signals to the power system 720 when a LEDappears to have malfunctioned. Specifically, if the current passingthrough the LED is too high or zero, then the LED driver circuit maydetermine that the LED appears to be a shorted circuit or an opencircuit, respectively. When a LED has malfunctioned, the system willstop activating that LED. The system may periodically retest the LED todetermine if the malfunction was inaccurately detected or the problemwas transitory. If the system determines that one LED has malfunctioned,the LED controller many deactivate other LEDs related to themalfunctioned LED. For example, if one LED in a set of red, green, andblue LEDs used to create a colored pixel has malfunctioned then allthree LEDs associated with that pixel may be deactivated.

In one embodiment, the LED driver circuit may monitor the currentprovided to a LED and make calibration adjustments based upon thecurrent passing through the LED. For example, if there are multiple LEDsof the same type but more current is passing through some of the LEDsthan others, then the LED driver circuit may adjust the rate of constantcurrent pulses provided to the LEDs accordingly. For example, those LEDsthat are receiving less current may be provided with high rate ofcurrent pulses in order to equalize the power output of the differentLEDs.

The technique of adjusting the rate of current pulses in response todetected current differences may be used whether the difference incurrent is unintentional or intentional. Current differences may beallowed to occur intentionally in order to improve the energyefficiency. Specifically, instead of carefully regulating the voltageprovided to different LEDs by burning off excess voltage as heat inorder to obtain the same amount current through each LED, a system mayprovide the same voltage to different LEDs even though this may resultin different amounts of currents passing through each LED due tomanufacturing differences between the different LEDs. To equalize forthe current differences, corresponding different rates of current pulsesmay be provided to each LED. LEDs with lower current will receive ahigher rate of current pulses. Thus, instead of equalizing the currentin a manner that inefficiently burns off excess energy, the differentLEDs will be equalized by adjusting the rate of current pulses providedto each LED.

The LED line driver circuit 425 of FIG. 4 coupled to a set of the LEDunits 750 of FIG. 7 forms a very efficient LED lighting system thatminimizes the amount of power wasted. In the LED line driver circuit425, the main line driver FET 461 is always fully on or fully off suchthat it dissipates very little power as heat. In the individual LEDunits 750, the local power system 720 shunts the line current when thelocal supply capacitor of the LED unit is charged thus passing all thecurrent to the next LED unit on the line. Within each individual LEDunit 750, the control circuitry uses minimal power such that the LEDdriver circuits 780 dissipate most of the power into the enabled LEDs781. So the overall controlled LED lighting system is very efficient.The system draws only fairly limited power when LEDs are off. And whenthe LEDs are on, the system wastes very little power.

As illustrated in the embodiment of FIG. 7, each LED unit controls fourdifferent LEDs however other embodiments can have a different number ofLEDs. To further optimize power usage (and reduce cost) groups of threeLED units controlling N LEDs each can be used to implement N pixels(each having red, green, and blue LEDs) by having each of the three LEDunits support a single color. For example, with the embodiment of FIG.7, four independent pixels could be created by having each LED unitcontrol four LEDs of the same color. Such a deployment of LED unitswould further optimize power usage since the different colored LEDsrequire different amounts of power and each LED unit would only draw theneeded power to support its specific colored LEDs (red, green, or blue).

Advanced Color System

In an alternate embodiment, the individual LED units may be implementedas pixel circuits wherein the LED units are provided with color data todrive colored pixels made up of red, green, and blue LEDs. Each LED unitmay control one or more pixels. The pixel circuits would receivecolor/brightness information for each pixel controlled by the pixelcircuit. The pixel circuits may operate using any of a number ofdifferent color encoding schemes including:

-   -   YUV or YCrCb or YPbPr colorspaces    -   RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) color space    -   HSV (Hue, Saturation, and Value) color space    -   CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and blacK) color space

The pixel circuit translates the received color information into thevalues needed to drive a set of red, green, and blue pixels in order togenerate the desired color. To generate very accurate colors, eachindividual pixel circuit may take into account the current beingprovided to the LEDs and the current temperature. The pixel circuit willadjust the output intensity values for each colored LED depending on thecurrent temperature and the current that will be provided to the LED.

A display system that performs color space conversion at the pixel levelprovides some advantages. The system providing the display informationcan be simplified since the system providing the image data does nothave to perform color space conversion. Instead, that color spaceconversion is performed at the location wherein the pixel light isgenerated.

Furthermore, a system that provides full color information down to thepixel light source can provide a higher quality output since the nativecolor space may be used directly. For example, the YCrCb color space ismore efficient than the RGB color space since the RGB color space has alot of mutual redundancy. Furthermore, there is no quantization errorintroduced during the color conversion process. Thus, by providing theYCrCb encoded color information all the way down to the pixel lightrendering system, the pixel light rendering system (the pixel circuit)can use the full color information to generate the most accurate colorreproduction.

As set forth earlier, a system may improve energy efficiency byproviding a voltage source that is not carefully calibrated to obtain anexact desired current but instead efficiently provides a voltage sourcethat provides an approximate desired current. With such a system, theemission spectrum of the LED may be affected. With a pixel circuit thatperforms color control as set forth above, the color circuitry mayadjust the color output in response to the current being provided to theLED. Thus, if the current provided to the LED changes the color outputof the LED, that change in color output can be taken in account by thecolor control circuitry to adjust the output of all the LEDs for thatpixel in order to generate a proper final color output. In this manner,the current actually provided to the different color LEDs used to createa colored pixel becomes an input to the color circuitry that determinesthe proper output intensity for each colored LED.

Automated Addressing System

As set forth in the preceding description, each of the individual LEDcontroller units (760 in FIG. 7) must be given a unique address if allof the individual LED controller units on a single driver line are to beindividually controllable. This may be performed by coupling a LED linedriver to a single individual LED controller unit on a driver line andtransmitting a command from the LED line driver to the that single LEDcontroller unit to burn its address fuses to a particular address value.Then, a series of LED controller units that each have unique addressesmay be coupled together in series on a single driver line in aparticular pattern thus creating a driver line with individuallycontrollable LED controller units in a known sequence.

To simplify the creation of such strings of LED controller units theaddress programming logic may be improved with the addition of a “Halleffect” sensor. A Hall effect sensor is an electrical sensor that candetect local magnetic field. To improve the address programming logic aHall effect sensor may be added in a manner that only allows the addressprogramming logic to be active when the Hall effect sensor detects aparticular magnetic field. Thus, if a LED controller unit is not withinthe defined magnetic field, then the address programming logic will notoperate. In this manner, several LED controller units that do not yethave an address burned in may be coupled to the same driver line. Then,to provide unique addresses to the LED controller units on the driverline, each individual LED controller unit will sequentially be placedwithin the proper magnetic field (one at a time) and commanded toprogram a unique address will be sent down the driver line. Since onlyone LED controller unit will be within the proper magnetic field, onlythat one LED controller unit will respond to the command to burn in anaddress. The other LED controllers on the same driver line will ignorethe command to burn in an address. Thus, unique addresses can beprogrammed into each LED controller unit already coupled together intoon single driver line by sequentially placing each LED controller unitin the proper magnetic field and then transmitting a command to programin a unique address.

Applications Overview

The single-wire multiple-LED power and control system set forth in thepreceding sections and illustrated in FIG. 2A can be used in a very widevariety of applications. In one of the most basic applications, thestring of individually controlled lighting units 250 can be deployed asa simple controlled ornamental lighting system such as a string ofChristmas tree lights. In such an embodiment, the driver line 221 can bean insulated wire that provides mechanical structure to the string inaddition to carrying the electrical power, providing the encoded controldata, providing the current reference value, and acting as a heat sinkfor the individual LED units 250. In such a deployment, the master LEDcontroller system 230 may be a small micro controller that has a set ofvarious different lighting patterns. These lighting patterns are onlylimited by the imagination of the person that programs the master LEDmicrocontroller system 230. Examples include: Solid lighting with aspectrum of colors, various different blinking light patterns withdifferent colors, progressive activation of LED units such that lightsource appears to travel down the string, etc.

The nearly infinite number of possible applications for the single-wiremultiple-LED power and control system set forth in the precedingsections is beyond the scope of this document. However, the followingsections will provide a subset of the many possible applications for thedisclosed system.

Controlled Lighting Applications

As set forth in the background of this document, LEDs are now being usedin many traditional lighting applications. Two of the biggest reasonsfor this are the energy efficiency of LEDs and the robustness of LEDsthat translates into very low maintenance for LED lighting systems.(LEDs do not need to be replaced as nearly as often as filament basedincandescent bulbs or even compact fluorescent bulbs.) However, thehigher price of LED based lighting systems has limited their deployment.The single-wire multiple-LED power and control system of the presentdisclosure reduces the cost of LED based lighting systems whilesimultaneously improving the feature set of LED based lighting systems.Thus, the single-wire multiple-LED power and control system of thepresent disclosure can expand the market for LED based lighting systems.

The single-wire multiple-LED power and control system of the presentdisclosure reduces the cost of LED based lighting systems by reducingthe wiring complexity of designing, manufacturing, and installing LEDbased lighting systems. Specifically, the single driver line (and itsreturn feed to complete the circuit) greatly simplifies the wiringrequired to construct a LED based lighting system. As illustrated inFIG. 2A, one possible embodiment combines the functions of the masterLED controller system 230, the power supply 210, and the LED line driver220 into a single LED Driver System 239 such that only a single driverline 221 (and its return wire 229) drives many individually controlledLED units (250-1 to 250-N). In this manner, the manufacture of alighting system is greatly simplified. However, the LED lighting systemof FIG. 2A allows every LED unit 250 (each having multiple LEDs ofdifferent colors) to be individually controlled such that sophisticatedmulti-colored patterns may be created.

FIGS. 11A to 12 illustrate block diagrams of possible LED lightingsystems that may be constructed using upon the teachings of the presentdisclosure. Note that these are merely two examples of countlesspossible lighting fixtures that may be created using the teachings ofthe present disclosure.

In the embodiment of FIG. 11A, the LED lighting system has been dividedinto two units: a LED Lighting fixture 1125 and a Master LED controllerand power line data encoder system 1130. The embodiment of FIG. 11A canbe used in traditional alternating current (AC) lighting environments.The LED Lighting fixture 1125 portion would be installed just like atraditional lighting fixture that is typically controlled by switched ACcurrent. However, instead of a traditional light switch, the Master LEDcontroller and power line data encoder system 1130 is placed where astand on/off switch would normally be placed.

The Master LED controller and power line data encoder system 1130includes a power supply, a microcontroller, a user interface, and apower line data encoder. A user interacts with the user interface on theMaster LED controller and power line data encoder system 1130 to providecontrol commands (turn on, turn off, set lights to blue, display rainbowpattern, etc.) The microcontroller and power line data encoder thenmodulates the control commands onto the power line that couples theMaster LED controller and power line data encoder system 1130 to the LEDLighting fixture 1125. Various different well-known power line datamodulation systems may be used.

In one possible embodiment illustrated in FIG. 11A, the user interfaceon the Master LED controller and power line data encoder system 1130 maycomprise a pair of dials. A first Brightness dial 1135 could be used tocontrol if the LED lighting fixture is to be powered on and how brightthe LEDs should illuminate. A second Color Hue dial 1136 could be usedto select a particular color hue for the LED units. A white settingwould be placed on the color hue dial 1136 to allow the LED lightingfixture 1125 to act as a normal white light source.

The Master LED controller and power line data encoder system 1130 drivesa LED Lighting fixture 1125 that may be installed as a traditionallighting fixture. A power supply and data extractor 1110 in the LEDLighting fixture 1125 receives, demodulates, and extracts the controlcommands from the control and power line 1131. The power supply and dataextractor 1110 then passes the extracted control data and the neededpower to the LED line driver 1110 to drive the series of LED units 1150as set forth in the earlier sections of this document.

A single Master LED controller and power line data encoder system 1130may drive multiple LED lighting fixtures. For example, FIG. 11Billustrates an embodiment wherein a single Master LED controller andpower line data encoder system 1130 controls three LED Lighting fixtures(1125, 1126, and 1127) just as a traditional light switch may controlmultiple overhead lighting fixtures.

FIG. 12 illustrates an alternative lighting system embodiment that iscontrolled with a wireless control system. Specifically, FIG. 12illustrates an alternative lighting system embodiment comprising a LEDLighting fixture 1229 and a wireless LED control transmitter 1238. TheLED Lighting fixture 1229 may be installed in the same location andmanner as a traditional AC powered lighting fixture. AC Power 1211 to apower supply 1210 in the LED Lighting fixture 1229 generates the neededDC power for the LED Line driver 1220 and a master LED controller system1230. (Note that in one embodiment, the master LED controller system1230 may receive operating power from the LED Line driver 1220.)

The master LED controller system 1230 includes sensor circuitry 1232 forreceiving wireless commands from a LED Control transmitter 1238. Themaster LED controller system 1230 decodes commands received from the LEDControl transmitter 1238 and passing those commands to LED Line driver1220. The wireless system may use Bluetooth, infrared light, or anyother suitable wireless data transmission system. If an infraredtransmission system is used, the functions of the LED Controltransmitter 1238 may be handled by a programmable infrared remotecontrol system. Thus, the LED Lighting fixture 1229 of FIG. 12 would beideal for use in rooms with home theatre systems. The AC power 1211 thatpowers the LED Lighting fixture 1229 may be from a traditional walllight switch. In order to match the expectations of typical people, themaster LED controller system 1230 may always power on the LED lightingfixture to emit white light as its default mode. In this manner, the LEDLighting fixture 1229 will operate just like an ordinary light fixturewhen the LED Control transmitter 1238 is not being used.

Using the LED String Technology for Stage Lighting Systems

Music concerts and stage plays use special lighting systems to improvethe presentation of a live performance. There is an entire industrydedicated to developing and selling lighting hardware and controlsystems for stage lighting. To allow for interoperation betweendifferent components, the United States Institute for Theatre Technology(USITT) has developed a standard communications protocol used to controlstage lighting and effects known as DMX512-A. The DMX512-Acommunications protocol is an EIA-485 based serial protocol fortransmitting commands to stage lighting and effects units.

To serve the stage lighting market, the teachings of the presentinvention may be implemented in conjunction with the popular DMX512-Acommunications protocol. In a first embodiment, a translation unit maybe used to convert from the DMX512-A communications protocol into anative protocol for a LED Line driver unit. For example, referring toFIG. 2A, the master LED controller system 230 may be a microcontrollerunit (MCU) that receives commands in the DMX512-A communicationsprotocol on input 232, translates those commands, and then outputs thosecommands into control data 231 sent in a native protocol for LED linedriver unit 220. The LED line driver unit 220 then drives theindividually controlled LED units 250 as set forth in the previoussections of this document. The master LED controller system 230 couldrelay the DMX512-A communications protocol information to a nextDMX512-A based device in a daisy chain arrangement.

The teachings of the present disclosure may also be used in a dedicatedDMX512-A based system. FIG. 13 illustrates a dedicated implementation ofa line driver 1320 system for DMX512-A based stage lighting system 1339.A traditional DMX512-A based controller system 1330 is used to transmitDMX512-A formatted data 1331 to a DMX512-A based line driver 1320. Thesame wiring may also carry power that is delivered to a power supply1310. A DMX512-A data interface 1325 in the line driver 1320 receivesand decodes DMX512-A protocol formatted commands.

The line driver 1320 then translates these commands and transmits thetranslated commands down the driver line 1321 along with current topower the individually controlled LED units 1350. The individuallycontrolled LED units 1350 receive and execute the commandsappropriately. Note that the individually controlled LED units 1350 mayperform additional functions in addition to just turning on LEDs atvarious brightness levels. For example, the individually controlled LEDunits 1350 may incorporate additional features such as panning ortilting the LEDs and using gobos. (Gobos are filters or patterns used infront of light sources to affect the light output.)

The DMX512-A data interface 1325 may output the DMX512-A protocol sothat a next DMX512-A based unit 1327 in a daisy-chain string would alsoreceived the control data. Similarly, power signals may also be passedto the next DMX512-A based unit 1327 from power supply 1310.

Using the LED String for Automotive Applications

Automobiles are filled with various light sources. For example, atypical automobile will have at least four turn indicator lights at thecorners of the automobile, two brake lights, interior dome lights,license plate lights, a central mounted brake light, trunk lights,engine hood lights, reverse indicator lights, and other additionallights. Each of these different lights may use a different type of bulbdue to the particular brightness and color requirements. To drive thesevarious lights, various different bulky wiring harnesses are routedaround an automobile. Since there are many different cars and carconfigurations, there needs to be many different wiring harnesses. Thistraditional system creates a difficult inventory management problemsince a large number of different wiring harnesses and bulbs must bestocked.

To simplify automotive wiring, the single-wire string of multiple LEDunits set forth in the preceding sections can be used in automotiveenvironments. A single wire can be routed around an automobileconnecting all the various different light outputs on the automobile(with extra slack at each light output). For example, a single wirecould start at a control location and then route to the front leftindicator lights, the front right indicator lights, the interior domelights, the right rear indicator lights, the right rear brake lights,the left rear indicator lights, the left rear brake lights, the reverseindicator light, the license plate light, the trunk/hatch lights, to anyother needed light location, and eventually back to the central controllocation. Then, at each point where a light source is needed, the wireis cut and a controlled LED light unit (250 from FIG. 2) is coupled tothe wire in a serial manner.

The control of all the light units on the string is then handled by acentralized control unit (such as LED driver system 239). Since thecentralized control unit controls exactly how light is output from eachlight unit (the color, the brightness, and changes to those), the samelight output unit could be used in all of the different locations. Forexample, centralized control unit would ensure that turn signalindicator lights blinked yellow, brake lights output red, and reverseindicator lights output white. For added safety, two independent stringscould be run in parallel such that if one string malfunctioned, theother string would continue to operate. Even with two systems running inparallel, such a two wire system would still be much less complex thanthe myriad of wires in traditional automotive electrical harnesses.

Since the lighting system of the present disclosure is completelycontrollable, the centralized control unit in an automobile could usethe automobile lighting in different manners than they are normallyused. For example, if an automobile is stolen, then a wirelesscommunication system (such as cellular telephone network or the OnStarsystem) could instruct the lighting system to begin flashing all thelights on the vehicle in an annoying conspicuous pattern that would makethe stolen car stand out. Similarly, the same technique could be used tohelp a person find a car when they cannot find it in a large parkinglot. The lights on the car can also be used to output information invarious manners. For example, a row of external lights on a car can beused to output battery charge status (or any other data) in a bardiagram manner. The controlled light output could also be used to outputcoded information to various sensors placed along roadways. For example,parking garages or toll booths may have sensors that detect variousidentification patterns in order to admit entry or bill a specificautomobile for usage of a service.

In addition to simplifying automobile construction and automobile partsinventory management, the LED string system of the present disclosure isvery energy efficient. As automobiles eventually transition fromgasoline to electricity, the efficiency of all the electrical systems inan automobile becomes very important. Thus, the LED based lightingsystem of the present disclosure would be ideal for use within electricvehicles. Not only does the system use energy efficient LEDs as lightsources but the amount of light can be carefully controlled dependingupon need. For example, brake lights may need to output a significantamount of light during the daytime in order to be seen but can beadjusted to output less light at night (and thus save energy).

Using the LED String for Modular Display Systems

The single-wire multiple-LED power and control system set forth in thepreceding sections can be used to create display systems. Specifically,referring to the FIG. 2A, the individually controlled LED units 250 maybe arranged into a two-dimensional pattern such that the individuallycontrolled LED units 250 can controlled as individual pixels in adisplay system.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example system wherein a single LED line driver1420 is being used to drive sixty-four individually controlled LED units(1450-1 to 1450-64) that have been arranged in an eight by eight,two-dimensional array. With two-hundred and fifty-six individuallycontrolled LED units on a single driver line, a sixteen by sixteen arraycould be created. (Note that this is one simple example, modules ofdifferent sizes and shapes may be created and those modules may becombined in any desired pattern.) A single power supply 1410 providesthe power for the LED line driver 1420 and the entire array ofindividually controlled LED units (1450-1 to 1450-64). One of the mostimportant aspects of the two-dimensional array system illustrated inFIG. 14 is that only a single wire is used to couple all of theindividually controlled LED units (1450-1 to 1450-64) to the driver line1421. This allows the array system of FIG. 14 to be very simple toconstruct.

The LED line driver 1420 is controlled by a master LED controller system1430 that sends pixel control data 1432 to the LED line driver 1420. Inaddition to controlling the LED line driver 1420, the master LEDcontroller system 1430 may control many other LED line drivers that eachdrive their own associated eight by eight arrays. By combining multiplearrays in a modular manner, larger display systems can be combined. Forexample, FIG. 15 conceptually illustrates a ten by eight array ofsmaller two-dimensional modular arrays. If the eight by eight array ofFIG. 14 were used in the arrangement of FIG. 15, the entire displaywould be 80 by 64 pixels. Higher resolution displays can be createdusing more individually controlled LED units in each modular unit and/ormore modular units.

In addition to two-dimensional display systems, the disclosed LEDstrings may be arranged into three dimensional patterns. With a threedimensional arrangement of LED strings, three-dimensional images may becreated.

Using the LED String for String Display Systems

The single-wire multiple-LED power and control system set forth in thepreceding sections can also be used to create various different nontraditional display systems. For example, several long strings ofindividually controlled LED units can be hung parallel to each other tocreate a two dimensional display system as illustrated in FIG. 16. Atthe head of each string, a line driver unit drives a single line tocontrol all of the individually controlled LED units on the string. Allof the line driver circuits can be controlled by a single mastercontroller system that sends out the appropriate data to render imageson the array. The display system of FIG. 16 could easily be rolled up,transported, and set up anywhere that a large display system is needed.In another embodiment, the individually controlled LED units could bemounted on a flexible sheet like a traditional retracting, reflectingprojection screen since a flat flexible wire could be used to couple theindividually controlled LED units. Such a display system could also berolled up like a carpet, transported, and set up anywhere a largedisplay system is needed.

With the deployment of multiple coordinated strings of individuallycontrolled LED units, virtually any surface (or even non surface in thecase of dangling strings) can be made into a display system. Thedeployment of the multiple strings of individually controlled LED unitsdoes not even have to be done in any careful manner. As long as sometype of two-dimensional pattern is created, a calibration system can beused to identify a two dimensional pattern and calibrate to thatpattern. An example is provided with reference to FIGS. 17 and 18.

Referring to FIG. 17, the creation of a free-form display system beginsby deploying several strings of individually controlled LED units atstage 1710. The strings may be deployed in any manner that creates atleast some type of two-dimensional pattern when viewed from vantagepoint away from the LED strings. For example, a building could havemultiple different LED strings attached to one side of the building.Multiple two dimensional arrays may also be created and controlled. Forexample, a van could be wrapped with multiple LED strings such that thetwo main sides of the van could serve as two-dimensional arrays.

Next, at stage 1720, all of the LED strings would be coupled to a singlemaster LED control system such as a computer system. The master LEDcontrol system would be informed as to the number of LED stringsattached and given addressing information that would allow the masterLED control system to uniquely address each of the LED units. Note thatat this point, the master LED control system would have no informationabout the topology of the deployed LED strings.

A calibration camera system is then deployed at a nominal viewingvantage point for the display system at stage 1730. With the example ofLED strings attached to the side of a building, a good vantage point maybe on the sidewalk across the street from the building. With the exampleof a van, a good vantage point might be twenty feet from the side of thevan. (Note that both sides of the van would be handled with twodifferent calibration runs.) After positioning the calibration camerasystem, the master LED control system would then display a set ofcalibration patterns at stage 1740. The calibration patterns are used toidentify the location and relative brightness of every LED unit on thevarious LED strings. This calibration allows a two-dimensional patternof the deployed LED units to be identified. LED units that are not seenby the calibration camera (perhaps due to being blocked from view in theexample of LED units on the other side of a van) are ignored.

This calibration system would likely involve a connection between themaster controller system and the calibration system in order to easilycorrelate between a current calibration pattern being displayed and theimage captured by the calibration system. However, a coding systemwherein the address of each LED unit is transmitted by a color output, ablinking pattern, or a combination thereof can also be used to matchcalibration displays to captured calibration images.

After capturing the calibration patterns and using those patterns toidentify the relative location and brightness of each LED unit thatcalibration information is stored in the master LED control system atstep 1750. At this point, the master LED control system has informationabout the topology of all the visible LED units which is used to createa model of a two-dimensional array. The master LED control system canrender images by translating images using the model and then sending outthe appropriate messages to the LED units. The master LED control systemmay share some of the calibration duties to the individual LED units bysending a subset of calibration information to the individual LED unitsas set forth in optional stage 1760. For example, a particular LED unitmay not be pointed toward the calibration camera system's vantage pointmaking it appear less bright than the other LED units. To compensate forthis, the calibration data in that particular LED unit may specify thatit should increase the brightness of that LED unit.

After deploying the LED strings, capturing calibration information, andbuilding a model of the two-dimensional array, the freeform displaysystem is ready for operation at step 1770. However if more than onetwo-dimensional array was created with the LED strings, then more thanone display system may be defined. For example, with a van covered withLED strings, a second display system can be created by selecting asecond vantage point on the other side of the van. Thus, at stage 1765,a user may opt to repeat stage 1730 to 1760 for another two-dimensionalsurface (i.e. the other side of the van) such that another displaysystem model may be created from the same set of LED strings.

FIG. 18 illustrates how a deployed set of LED strings having displaymodel created using the method of FIG. 17 can be used to display videoinformation. The display system uses the model to translate videoinformation into LED control commands sent to the individual LED units.

Starting at the left side of FIG. 18, any type of appropriate videosource including a computer system 1810, a DVD 1811, HDMI 1812, Blu-Ray1813, or other video source is provided to a frame decoder 1820. Theframe decoder 1820 decodes the original video source into a series ofdigital frame representations. Below the frame decoder 1820 is aconceptual illustration of the original video frame.

Next, a frame scaler 1830 adjusts the scale of the original source frameto a size appropriate for the display. For example, the resolution ofthe original video frame may need to be reduced or expanded usinginterpolation. The frame scaler 1830 may access only a subset of theoriginal video frame to reduce the amount of video information thatneeds to be processed. Below the frame scaler 1830 is a conceptualillustration of a video frame that has been reduced in size from theoriginal video frame below the frame decoder 1820.

Next, a topography remapping of the source video occurs at stage 1840.The free-form display system will likely not have a neat two dimensionalarray that exactly maps onto a traditional rectangular video frame.Thus, image clipping, frame distortion, and pixel interpolation mayoccur to make the video source frame map onto the free-form displaysystem. Below the topography remapping stage 1840 is a conceptual imageof a distorted frame to compensate for the non rectangular shape of afree-form display.

Finally, a data distribution system 1850 scans the modified source frameand creates a set of LED unit commands to send out to the appropriatelyaddressed LED units according to the display model. Below datadistribution system 1850 is a conceptual model of the various displaystrings that create the free-form display system. The data distributionsystem 1850 sends out the LED update commands to the various LED stringcontrollers (1880-1 to 1880-N). By repeating the stages of 1820 to 1850for each original source video frame, video information can be displayedon a free-form display system created using a set of LED strings (withindividually controlled LED units) and a model of the deployed LEDstrings as created with the method of FIG. 17.

The preceding technical disclosure is intended to be illustrative, andnot restrictive. For example, the above-described embodiments (or one ormore aspects thereof) may be used in combination with each other. Otherembodiments will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewingthe above description. The scope of the claims should, therefore, bedetermined with reference to the appended claims, along with the fullscope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. In the appendedclaims, the terms “including” and “in which” are used as theplain-English equivalents of the respective terms “comprising” and“wherein.” Also, in the following claims, the terms “including” and“comprising” are open-ended, that is, a system, device, article, orprocess that includes elements in addition to those listed after such aterm in a claim are still deemed to fall within the scope of that claim.Moreover, in the following claims, the terms “first,” “second,” and“third,” etc. are used merely as labels, and are not intended to imposenumerical requirements on their objects.

The Abstract is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. §1.72(b), whichrequires that it allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of thetechnical disclosure. The abstract is submitted with the understandingthat it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning ofthe claims. Also, in the above Detailed Description, various featuresmay be grouped together to streamline the disclosure. This should not beinterpreted as intending that an unclaimed disclosed feature isessential to any claim. Rather, inventive subject matter may lie in lessthan all features of a particular disclosed embodiment. Thus, thefollowing claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description,with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.

We claim:
 1. An electronic circuit node having only two externalelectrical connections coupled in a series manner to a single conductorline, said electronic circuit node comprising: a local capacitor, saidlocal capacitor for storing a local power supply; an integrated circuit,said integrated circuit coupled in said series manner to said singleconductor line with an input port and an output port, said integratedcircuit periodically directing a current received on said input portinto said local capacitor to create said local power supply, saidintegrated circuit shunting said current from said input port to saidoutput port when not directing current received on said input port intosaid local capacitor; and at least one output circuit coupled to saidintegrated circuit, said output circuit powered using said local powersupply.
 2. The electronic circuit node as set forth in claim 1; whereinsaid at least one output circuit comprises a light emitting diode. 3.The electronic circuit node as set forth in claim 1 wherein; saidintegrated circuit comprises a data extraction sub-circuit, said dataextraction sub-circuit for demodulating control data modulated onto saidcurrent.
 4. The electronic circuit node as set forth in claim 3 wherein;said data extraction sub-circuit demodulates said control data bydetecting current deviations on said current from a nominally constantcurrent level.
 5. The electronic circuit node as set forth in claim 3wherein; said integrated circuit controls said at least one outputcircuit using said control data.
 6. The electronic circuit node as setforth in claim 1 wherein; said single output port serves as a localground for said electronic circuit node.
 7. The electronic circuit nodeas set forth in claim 1 wherein; said input port is coupled to anupstream output port of an upstream electronic circuit node.
 8. A methodof driving an output circuit on an electronic node comprising only twoexternal electrical connections, said method comprising: periodicallydirecting a direct current received on a single input line into a localcapacitor to create a local power supply; shunting said direct currentreceived on said single input line to a single output line when notdirecting said direct current into said local capacitor; and drivingsaid output circuit using said local power supply stored in said localcapacitor.
 9. The method of driving an output circuit on an electronicnode as set forth in claim 8 wherein; driving said output circuitcomprises driving a light emitting diode.
 10. The method of driving anoutput circuit on an electronic node as set forth in claim 8; whereinsaid method further comprises: demodulating control data that wasmodulated onto said direct current.
 11. The method of driving an outputcircuit on an electronic node as set forth in claim 10 whereindemodulating control data comprises detecting a pattern of currentdeviations from said direct current.
 12. The method of driving an outputcircuit on an electronic node as set forth in claim 8 wherein; saidsingle output line serves as a local ground for said electronic circuitnode.
 13. The method of driving an output circuit on an electronic nodeas set forth in claim 8 wherein; said single input line is coupled to anupstream single output line of an upstream electronic circuit node. 14.A single conductor electronic circuit loop for driving a plurality ofoutput circuits, said electronic circuit loop comprising: a currentgenerator, said current generator driving a direct current on a loopcircuit; and a plurality of individual circuit nodes coupled in a seriesmanner to said loop circuit, each of said individual circuit nodeshaving only two external electrical connections, each said electroniccircuit node comprising a local capacitor, said local capacitor forstoring a local power supply, an integrated circuit, said integratedcircuit coupled in said series manner to said single conductorelectronic circuit loop with an input port and an output port, saidintegrated circuit periodically directing said direct current receivedon said input port into said local capacitor to create said local powersupply, said integrated circuit shunting said current from said inputport to said output port when not directing current received on saidinput port into said local capacitor, and at least one output circuitcoupled to said integrated circuit, said output circuit powered usingsaid local power supply.
 15. The single conductor electronic circuitloop as set forth in claim 14 wherein said output circuit comprises alight emitting diode.
 16. The single conductor electronic circuit loopas set forth in claim 14 wherein; said integrated circuit comprises adata extraction sub-circuit, said data extraction sub-circuit fordemodulating control data modulated onto said direct current.
 17. Thesingle conductor electronic circuit loop as set forth in claim 16wherein; said data extraction sub-circuit demodulates said control databy detecting current deviations on said direct current from a nominallyconstant current level.
 18. The single conductor electronic circuit loopas set forth in claim 16 wherein; said integrated circuit controls saidat least one output circuit using said control data.
 19. The singleconductor electronic circuit loop as set forth in claim 14 wherein; saidoutput port serves as a local ground for said individual circuit node.20. The single conductor electronic circuit loop as set forth in claim14 wherein; said input port is coupled to an upstream output port of anupstream electronic circuit node.